Weird music

matonen · Post by **matonen** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 17:22

So, i just downloaded keen 4 on my windows xp.
I had last time played it on my old windows 98 couple years ago, and i realised, that music sounded all weird in this new version!

Then i went to youtube to listen keen 4 music, and in all of those videos, the music sounded the same as in my xp!

Then i started thinking about it. I had gotten the 98 version from my dad. He got it in 1994 on a floppy disk.

So my question is:

Does keen 4 have some extended sound/music pack?
Does Windows 98 play the music naturally in a different way? (i played with a DosBox in xp)

I would like to remind, that in the 98 version the music SOUNDED AWESOME!

DSL · Post by **DSL** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 18:01

Define 'weird' please!

matonen · Post by **matonen** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 18:06

I meant that my 98 plays the music with A LOT better quality!
So im wondering why Dosbox doesnt play it as well

The 98 is missing some sound effects, though. like:

-no sound when keen dies
-no sound when you get 1-up

EDIT: Okay i've been listening the differences between 98 version and dosbox version, and it seems that the dosbox version is just missing some notes and instruments. The biggest difference was probably in the song "too hot"

matonen · Post by **matonen** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 20:30

If somebody here at the forums owns an windows 98, please download commander keen 4 and see if there's a difference with the music.

StupidBunny · Post by **StupidBunny** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:50

I have a Windows 95 and the music sounds very similar between it and DosBox; however, some of the instruments on DosBox don't sound as good. It's subtle but the music in Bloogton Manufacturing and BloogFoods, Inc. are missing some of the machine-type noises in DosBox.

Malvineous · Post by **Malvineous** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:23

Many sound cards of the Win98 era didn't have OPL chips, so they couldn't reproduce the same sound you'd get with a "real" sound card under DOS. There were two ways around this - Creative Labs with their Sound Blaster Live included a software OPL synth, which sounded pretty similar to a hardware synth, but many cheaper cards included a real-time OPL to MIDI converter and just used their MIDI synth (often a software wavetable) for OPL music.

You'll probably find the music sounds the same if you use something like dro2midi to convert it to MIDI and play it back through a wavetable MIDI synth instead.

matonen · Post by **matonen** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:34

Okay, i took the win98 version to my winxp and ran it with dosbox.
It indeed sounds completely different and better in windows 98!

matonen · Post by **matonen** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 18:06

Still no replies? Come' on, somebody here must have a windows 98!

And malvineous, if the windows 98 is missing something, how can it play the music better? Again, try to play some level with music "too hot"

Post by **Levellass** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:50

From my troubles with Jazz Jackrabbit, I have found this occurs when my Windows XP can't process the information it's getting from Dosbox, certain PSM (Music) samples don't play unless I turn down the framerate. Maybe your Windows 98 is interpreting the Adlib data differently? Like how midi files sound different on different systems?

matonen · Post by **matonen** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 8:17

Hmm... dosbox is indeed missing some notes.
I havent played keen 4 in the original dos. I have tried to search for the music from internet, but i only find the "dosbox" music.

So i havent found the kind of music that matches with my windows 98 music

Post by **Levellass** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 11:20

I have some remixed music files, but not many, most of mine are in the original IMF format.

Galaxieretter · Post by **Galaxieretter** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 22:47

Go ahead and upload the old version that was on your 98 machine. I'm going to try Commander Keen on my 98 machine but I doubt it will sound different.

Gr1nreaper · Post by **Gr1nreaper** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 23:23

Matonen, would you mind recording the music in-game as mp3 and uploading a portion for the rest of us to hear? high-quality of course...

matonen · Post by **matonen** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 14:12

Galaxieretter wrote:Go ahead and upload the old version that was on your 98 machine. I'm going to try Commander Keen on my 98 machine but I doubt it will sound different.

You can download keen 4 from internet. I've already found out that the different versions dont have different music.

Gr1nreaper wrote:Matonen, would you mind recording the music in-game as mp3 and uploading a portion for the rest of us to hear? high-quality of course...

Sure, i could try that, but it wont probably be high-quality xD
where should i upload it? I havent uploaded music before.

Post by **Levellass** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:18

Apparently there is some site for free hosting of Keen-related files, but I have forgotten where it is and who runs it. Sorry.