Roland SC-55 Music Packs "Updates 'n stuff"
#241 Posted 18 December 2016 - 02:47 PM
Question: Do you have an SC-55 recording of Lee's full version of Grabbag? That would be pretty sweet.
Comment: By downloading the OGG versions and changing the extension to ".logg", they can be played as seamless loops by hcs64/kode64's vgmstream plugin (Winamp, foobar200). I can listen to the definitive version of Stalker for literal hours.
#242 Posted 18 December 2016 - 05:38 PM
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 18 December 2016 - 05:38 PM
#243 Posted 25 December 2016 - 12:08 AM
#245 Posted 26 December 2016 - 02:49 AM
This post has been edited by Sledgehammer: 26 December 2016 - 03:01 AM
#247 Posted 26 December 2016 - 01:18 PM
#249 Posted 22 January 2017 - 07:48 PM
Hendricks266, on 26 December 2016 - 05:29 PM, said:
Oh, so that's where Shodan is from. Never played System Shock, but all I ever hear is how great it is.
Is it really that great a game? Glad to see another company coming to its senses and making a classic open source. That means soon there will be no more need to play it in DOS.
This post has been edited by Master O: 22 January 2017 - 07:48 PM
#251 Posted 02 October 2017 - 05:48 AM
I have a question on what settings were used when you recorded them though.
I was mucking around with a SC-55 the other day and I thought I would try and replicate the quality of the Blood flac files from your site by running the Midi files through it.
I could get the music sounding like I remember in DOS, but I couldn't get it sounding as punchy/crisp as you have in your flac files.
Did you change the Reverb/Chorus etc settings when you were recording these files?
I am curious to learn a little more about your technique and tweaks that you use. No matter what I seemed to change, I couldn't get it sounding identical. As far as I could tell, it was the same hardware that you used for generating the music.
#252 Posted 23 October 2017 - 07:18 PM
Quote
Copyright © Lee Jackson
All Rights Reserved.
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 23 October 2017 - 07:22 PM
#253 Posted 24 October 2017 - 02:58 PM
Tiddalick, on 02 October 2017 - 05:48 AM, said:
I have a question on what settings were used when you recorded them though.
I was mucking around with a SC-55 the other day and I thought I would try and replicate the quality of the Blood flac files from your site by running the Midi files through it.
I could get the music sounding like I remember in DOS, but I couldn't get it sounding as punchy/crisp as you have in your flac files.
Did you change the Reverb/Chorus etc settings when you were recording these files?
I am curious to learn a little more about your technique and tweaks that you use. No matter what I seemed to change, I couldn't get it sounding identical. As far as I could tell, it was the same hardware that you used for generating the music.
Interesting. When I record now I do some post-processing effects like multi-band compression as the levels are quite low in-game and I can't increase the amplitude without clipping. So I compress it and then raise the gain to make it louder so that the transients don't clip. Gives the effects of a more punchy sound. However, I didn't do that to my Blood recordings. Those Blood recordings are very old. Of the first batch I ever recorded and I've since improved but haven't gotten around to rerecording them yet. I'm not sure what the difference could be. I made no changes to reverb or chorus settings. As far as I know I recorded them unedited. Except for the possible exemption of duplicate MIDI channels dedicated to other devices that shouldn't be played by the SC-55 (GUS and FM). I don't remember if the Blood MIDIs have them or not but they need to be muted. Can you share one of your tracks?
#254 Posted 24 October 2017 - 05:34 PM
#255 Posted 24 October 2017 - 06:35 PM
#256 Posted 24 October 2017 - 07:28 PM
Hendricks266, on 24 October 2017 - 05:34 PM, said:
Apparently not.
Ugh, can never get over how noobish the retail Blood MIDIs are compared to those in the Alpha, it just has to be a different composer, there's no way it's the same guy.
#257 Posted 25 October 2017 - 04:30 AM
#258 Posted 24 June 2018 - 01:15 PM
#259 Posted 24 June 2018 - 07:36 PM
I'll get to it...eventually. It's the very next one on the list and it's started. Just need to finish.
#260 Posted 24 June 2018 - 11:41 PM
This post has been edited by NightFright: 24 June 2018 - 11:42 PM
#261 Posted 25 June 2018 - 01:37 AM
2. By what you describe, aren't you just pushing the issue to an OS level?
3. Got some samples of it?
#262 Posted 25 June 2018 - 05:16 AM
@NightFright I heard on the VOGONS forums that there's a new 100% authentic Sound Canvas VSTi out now from Roland. Not a SoundFont and only works really with DAWs, but they've apparently finally got their act together and put one out. It's like $150 or something, but it's nice to see something like that exists now officially and that it's far better than the old Virtual Sound Canvas.
I agree that Yamaha XG is better, but again I'm going for authenticity and the classic experience, which is hardly ever the best quality. A music pack with the Yamaha would be interesting. But not being composed to "mastered" for it there but be problems with instrument volume or ADSR (Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release) discrepancies.
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 25 June 2018 - 05:21 AM
#263 Posted 25 June 2018 - 05:25 AM
If anyone wants to know what the Yamaha S-YXG50 software synth sounds like, here are a few examples (not the best quality, though):
Aliens, Say Your Prayers
Stalker
XPlasma
I am not saying that this is better than the SC-55, that's up to individual taste or preference. It's just to point out there is a decent (and free) alternative even if you don't want to rely on soundfonts or pre-recorded files. It's still great that this project exists to provide a fair chance for everyone to listen to Duke3D music the way it was meant to be heard. It only covers the original game and not any custom (non-commercial) addons that came with their own music, though. You need to be aware of that.
This post has been edited by NightFright: 25 June 2018 - 05:32 AM
#265 Posted 25 June 2018 - 05:37 AM
This board really showed its true power when used with MIDI files in Yamaha's proprietary XG format (which offered considerable quality enhancements). Listen to these amazing samples (pure XG MIDI playback with software synth, no additional effects or tampering):
asfarxg.mid
borg.mid
feel_nrg.mid
Unfortunately there were almost no games that ever used the XG format, in spite of its potential. Sadly, XG sounded like garbage on boards that did not support it, and besides Yamaha there weren't any that did IIRC. Probably the main reason why it died again, but it's a great pleasure listening to these tracks even today still. Ah, I am probably raving too much about it, also considering this is supposed to be a thread about the SC-55, but it's just because I am a huge fan of the Yamaha synths. Hope you guys can understand. ^^
This post has been edited by NightFright: 25 June 2018 - 06:05 AM
#266 Posted 25 June 2018 - 02:55 PM
Also, Quest Studios used to host some MIDI soundtracks of various Sierra games and some of them were in XG format. The archives are still available here: http://www.midimusic...te-soundtracks/. The Leisure Suit Larry 3 and Silpheed soundtracks are the ones with Yamaha XG downloads. Something to check out. The games never supported them, to clarify. It was just something special and custom by a fan (I don't know if it was by Tom, the original site creator, or not).
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 25 June 2018 - 03:00 PM
#267 Posted 25 June 2018 - 11:00 PM
At Doom's Gate (XG)
Grabbag (XG)
#268 Posted 26 June 2018 - 05:15 AM
#269 Posted 26 June 2018 - 05:24 AM
This post has been edited by NightFright: 26 June 2018 - 05:26 AM
#270 Posted 26 June 2018 - 07:43 AM
NightFright, on 24 June 2018 - 11:41 PM, said:
MusicallyInspired, on 25 June 2018 - 05:16 AM, said:
@NightFright I agree that really good soundfonts are hard to come by, you will always have some issues, e.g. wrong volume of instruments or the balance between them or other problems.
I cannot really speak for or against the Yamaha devices, as I personally didn't like most recordings I heard of those devices. But it might just be that they weren't fully optimized for it. (And Vocaroo just also butchers the sound quality in that regard).
@MusicallyInspired About that VSTi plugin: If you do not want to buy the proper hardware then it's surely the closest match you can get and also easiest to set up, however, comparing them to the real devices you will notice differences, e.g. that it doesn't fully use the SC-55 sound map, even if selected it may use drum sets from the other models and also everything just sounds "harder", as if the attack portion is set wrongly and also some minor differences are notable with certain instruments as well.
I compared it to 2 things, the Roland SC-55 and the Roland SC-D70 (which uses the 8820 map by default) and the real hardware still sounds better compared to the VSTi plugin - considering the VSTi is essentially also emulated, it's fair enough I guess.. And you can get a proper SC-55 roughly for the same price, however setting it up might prove to be more difficult.