i ran into the "speedup" problem with the TIEINTRO.WAV file as well.So i made this fairly crappy-sounding 8 bit WAV of your intro theme, judiciously chopped-up to match back to the cinematic, more-or-less:

http://evilcyborg.com/files/TIEINTRO.wav

if anyone knows how to improve the sound quality on an 8-bit WAV such as this, point me in the right direction, please!

That I agree with. Before I discovered SoundFonts GUS was like the Holy Grail of Badassery in MIDI music for me. Playing Doom with GUS created a whole in my desk (it's a boner joke).

The one problem I noticed when using GUS in DOSBox, however, was that notes would often get "stuck". Quite frequently notes wouldn't stop playing until they'd be played again. Somebody else (I think one of the DOSBox people, actually) wrote that they aren't experiencing the issue, so I don't know what it was caused by, but it made GUS almost unusable for me in case of most games. I think to some degree it occurred in case of every single game I tried - stuff like this also sometimes happens with General MIDI but not nearly as often.

Anyway, I read that where GUS really shines is tracker music but I didn't get any interesting results with any games with tracker music I've tried (be it Jazz Jack Rabbit or Terminal Velocity).

Hi,

First of all thanks for restoring the music stuff in the concourse. It was a bit weird to find the according file in the appropriate subdirectory and it not being played. However, one of the things I noticed is that the engine sounds appear to be bit too loud. I checked with my DOS version of Tie CD and you don't hear anything (alright so far I have only tried the first campaign mission...). Otherwise I like what I see and hear. However, I still feel like strangling the LucasArts folks for kicking out Imuse. It was brilliant.

Cheers
Patrick

(RE: Midi and what soundfont to use for the DOS version:

Hi,

What's wrong with the Roland Sound Canvas stuff provided free of charge and legally by Microsoft with DirectX (under Win98 you can even install it as a software synthesizer via the hardware wizard!)? In my old P133 I still have a hardware version (SCD-7 general midi daughterboard on a Terratec Maestro 32/96 (general synth with a lot (!) of bass - sounded absolutely lovely (!) with Tie Fighter floppy and CD). The sound quality is good. Alright, I did play with the idea of getting myself an ISA to USB adapter for use with my current PC but these things cost a bleeding fortune (a couple of hundred US Dollars / Euro) and not even I am that(!) mad ;-).

To cut a long story short, the sound quality of the Roland Sound Canvas stuff supplied by MS is really good (also in DOSBox), it works, it is free, and it is legal.

The music of Tie Fighter sounds nearly as good as it did with my hardware version(s)!

(Some time ago, I did actually even contact Roland/Edirol in Germany and ask them if it were possible to purchase the MT-32 ROMs for a reasonable amount for use in older games with e.g. MUNT but the answer apparently given to Roland/Edirol Germany by Roland/Edirol Japan was 'no' - I had argued that it would be nice to keep MT-32 alive but apparently folks at Roland/Edirol in Japan did not quite share that opinion.)

Cheers
Patrick)

would you upload the files again pleas e, mediafire doesn't have them anymore.

i cant find anything about roland sound canvas included in directx/windows?! all i can find is stuff about some stand-alone software thats called roland virtual sound canvas, but it isnt free.

could you point me in the right direction please? what exactly is this sound canvas provided by microsoft and how do you use it??

(please dont tell me you're talking about microsoft gs wavetable synth)

Regarding GUS emulation with positional audio. In Dosbox .74 gus panning is a bit broken. All output is made to come out center so it sounds like mono. I believe this has been fixed in svn. It defiantly is fixed in ykhwong's build and Alun Bestor's boxer.

As asking doesn't hurt, there's any chance of create a soundfonts file with the samples you used to make these?

I've used sample libraries costing a total of well over $1000, which are also much more complex than what Soundfonts are capable of. I hope that qualifies as a valid 'no' ;)

Yes, indeed.
Well I've tested few soundfonts libs available around, but nothing gets closer to what you expect :(
Thanks!!

yep, I am :-) (have a look at who provided it ;-))

(under WinXP go to your sound card properties under the control panel - where you select the midi device of choice to be used under Windows and there it should tell you under properties - alas, under Win 7 and 8 the information is more difficult to get hold of)


P.S.: I do actually also prefer my hardware version(s - the Terratec Maestro32/96 is a really nice alternative - unfortuantlely it is ISA!) but alas I can no longer use it(them) so the Roland/MS GM/GS version (although the file is called gm.dls) provided with DirectX is at least an alternative - just remember how midi out of the box used to sound before that - FM - after all, not everybody was as mad as myself and prepared to fork out a fortune for proper midi sound.

These sound fantastic! Great work!

Hi,

Thanks for clarifying that :-). I had always been wondering why the panning test in the sound setup stuff of TieCD DOS would work in Sound Blaster 16 mode and not in GUS mode. (However, I think I also remember it happening with older versions than 0.74 as well but I am not sure.)

By the way, how good is the GUS music emulation under DOSBox?


Cheers
Patrick

Hi,

Do you know any reasonably priced (or even free) soundfont files (.sf2) that come close to actual hardware Roland SC-7, SC-55 or the 4MB Dream chip on the Terratec Maestro 3296 (that one was particularly good with Tie Fighter!)?

I had also tried the sound font files (2MB, 4MB, and 8MB) that came with my Creative Audigy and X-Fi cards but in the end I grudgingly went back to the Roland GS/GM stuff supplied with DirectX. I have tried out a number of SF2 files but in the end I found none of them really convincing.


Cheers
Patrick Libuda

P.S.: Lovely job.

Yah, I'm pretty sure it was an issue in earlier dosbox versions. As to how it good is the gus midi in dosbox. It's perfect if you can find the ultrasound drivers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdZTiB4toco

There are also the pro patches lite 1.6 floating around the internet, but look out for a faulty snare drum that repeats itself forever. There are fixed patches for it.