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entropicdecay
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IMF

Post by entropicdecay »

When converting MIDIs to IMF to use for the TSRmusic in Vorticons mods, or to use in Galaxy mods, is there a way to change what sounds are used rather than getting a set of default patches corresponding to the General MIDI sounds?
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K1n9_Duk3
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Re: IMF

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Probably. It depends on what tool you use to convert from MIDI to IMF. Every MIDI to IMF converter has to have a set of instrument definitions for the OPL2 chip somewhere. The file formats of these instrument definitions may vary, and may be hard to edit.
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entropicdecay
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Re: IMF

Post by entropicdecay »

I use mid2imf
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Re: IMF

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Then you should be able to export the timbre file by using the "/dumptimbre" parameter. The format of the timbre file is given in the readme.txt file. You'll probably need to write your own program to modify the timbre file, since the format is only used by the Apogee Sound System and other tools/sound systems are probably using slightly different formats.
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entropicdecay
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Re: IMF

Post by entropicdecay »

Ah, I see. Don't think my programming skills are up to writing my own timbre file editor as of yet, sadly. Maybe someday.
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Re: IMF

Post by Gridlock »

This is also a topic of interest to me. I've been doing some more midi->imf conversions lately for Voyage to Veota (not a strict technical requirement, but I like the adlib sound style). I've been using mid2imf for most of my recent conversions instead of IMFCreator. I've found that mid2imf produces a much smoother output and has far fewer audio glitches, compared to IMFCreator's often unstable output, particularly with percussion.

As a side note, I also appreciate that mid2imf is perfectly 1-1 with what you hear in the Galaxy engine, whereas IMFCreator's preview always sounds slightly different compared to the final version playing in engine. There's also the annoyance that the preview tempo is wrong compared to in engine. I always set IMFCreator's Tics/Second to 700 when I'm previewing a track to get a more accurate playback tempo, then I set it to 560 before exporting.

The instrument voices are quite different in mid2imf compared to IMFCreator. Some are better, and many others are worse. An example is the Music Box instrument from IMFCreator, which was one one of my favorite sounds to use in Atroxian Realm (it's that electronic rhythm sound you hear in tracks like the terminator text screen). The Music Box equivalent in mid2imf is different, and less useful. I've also found that it seems quite difficult to find full-sounding, "powerful" pads with mid2imf's instrument voices.

I'd be interesting in figuring out a way to customize instrument voices, or simply port over some of the ones used in IMFCreator, if that's even possible. Mid2imf's timbre file appears to be a simple .dat file, so I'm wondering if this is a custom-made data stucture (I do see the struct info in the readme). IMFCreator, meanwhile, allows you to export .OP2 files from its instrument editor. I'm not sure if there's any correlation between the two file types or whether a conversion tool could be written.

As for what you were asking about, entropicdecay, you may want to check out IMFCreator's instrument editor (Edit/Instruments). I don't know how well it works, but in theory it seems to have all the nitty gritty settings you could change to modify voices (seems like quite an undertaking, tough). IMFCreator has a more robust (though somewhat buggy) interface compared to mid2imf's command line tools. It might be able to do what you're looking for.
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Re: IMF

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

I haven't tested this myself, but according to the ModdingWiki, a program called OPL 3 Bank Editor can edit both the Apogee Sound System Timbre Format (used by my MIDI to IMF converter) and OP2 Bank Format (used by IMFCreator).
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Re: IMF

Post by entropicdecay »

Gridlock wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 17:27As for what you were asking about, entropicdecay, you may want to check out IMFCreator's instrument editor (Edit/Instruments). I don't know how well it works, but in theory it seems to have all the nitty gritty settings you could change to modify voices (seems like quite an undertaking, tough). IMFCreator has a more robust (though somewhat buggy) interface compared to mid2imf's command line tools. It might be able to do what you're looking for.
That could be worth a try, thanks. Although I think IMFCreator didn't work on my computer for some reason, or something? That probably would've been a previous computer, though, so maybe it'll work better on this one...
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