Page 1 of 1

Some great OPL Synth music to listen on my Soundcloud channel

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2019 20:12
by Hisymak
Hey, do you like to hear some Adlib/Sound Blaster/OPL Synth-styled music, like what plays in Commander Keen and many other good games from DOS era?
If yes, then let's check out my Soundcloud channel: https://soundcloud.com/hisymak
where I uploaded selection of my most favourite MIDIs from various music composers for mostly Doom megawads and level packs. I made OPL Synth rendition of those and I think they sound really great that way. I will upload more from time to time.
Enjoy!

Re: Some great OPL Synth music to listen on my Soundcloud channel

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2019 22:07
by nanomekia
Hey, this is pretty sweet, dude.

I'm especially liking the Peer Gynt one - In the Hall of the Mountain King is one of my favorite pieces. It'd make a pretty good ringtone; if I ever feel like fussing about with new ringtones may I use that?

Re: Some great OPL Synth music to listen on my Soundcloud channel

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:07
by Hisymak
nanomekia wrote: Sun Jan 27, 2019 22:07 Hey, this is pretty sweet, dude.
Thanks!
nanomekia wrote: Sun Jan 27, 2019 22:07 I'm especially liking the Peer Gynt one - In the Hall of the Mountain King is one of my favorite pieces. It'd make a pretty good ringtone; if I ever feel like fussing about with new ringtones may I use that?
Yes. I also have full version of that song so I can provide if you are interested.

Re: Some great OPL Synth music to listen on my Soundcloud channel

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 16:59
by nanomekia
Hisymak wrote: Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:07 Yes. I also have full version of that song so I can provide if you are interested.
Ooh, please do! That would be greatly appreciated. :) Thanks mate.

Re: Some great OPL Synth music to listen on my Soundcloud channel

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 18:06
by Hisymak
nanomekia wrote: Mon Jan 28, 2019 16:59 Ooh, please do! That would be greatly appreciated. :) Thanks mate.
Okay. Here you go: http://www.mediafire.com/file/4287usfv3 ... 3.mp3/file

Just in case you are interested in more music, you can check out my Youtube channel as well: https://www.youtube.com/user/hisymak/videos
Here I uploaded even some complete soundtracks, meaning hours of OPL music. And some remakes of real songs as well.

Re: Some great OPL Synth music to listen on my Soundcloud channel

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 2:48
by nanomekia
Awesome, thank you!

*totally bookmarks the channel for the next time he has some time to sit down and listen*

Re: Some great OPL Synth music to listen on my Soundcloud channel

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2019 3:01
by Gridlock
I really love some of these, especially the first two (Twilit Jungle and Scattered Ashes). I'm curious about the approach you used to create these. I noticed some of these titles mention "GENMIDI demo." Is there any chance that's some kind of adlib converter, or did the conversions have to be some through some manual method?

I could potentially see exploring this kind of modern/retro fusion style if Voyage to Veota ever becomes a thing. It seems like it's a nice way to modernize the music without losing that old-school Keen style (not to mention not having to deal with the IMF format). I'm wondering how difficult these were to produce and what techniques you used, if you don't mind sharing. Thanks!

Re: Some great OPL Synth music to listen on my Soundcloud channel

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 20:30
by Hisymak
Gridlock wrote: Sun Feb 03, 2019 3:01 I really love some of these, especially the first two (Twilit Jungle and Scattered Ashes). I'm curious about the approach you used to create these. I noticed some of these titles mention "GENMIDI demo." Is there any chance that's some kind of adlib converter, or did the conversions have to be some through some manual method?
Heh, actually I was waiting for someone to ask about this. So here's all the magic.
First, I created this project: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/9 ... opl-synth/ (in short, Hisymak's GENMIDI is an OPL soundfont, it contains patches/OPL register values for General MIDI instruments).
Second, I use GZDoom's built-in OPL Synth emulator to play the MIDIs. GZDoom has really very good and powerful OPL player engine. It has some additional cool features which make it even better than the original hardware, like full stereo panning, and emulation of 8 OPL chips, which means 72 available voices and practically completely elliminates the limitation of number of simultaneously played notes. Doom's DMX sound library (which was originally used to play music) has also one very nice and unique feature: double-voice instruments with fine tuning of second voice. That means, two OPL voices play simultaneously to play a single note, which makes possibility to produce much richer and interesting sounds, than most games usually achieved with just single voice.
The method I use to play and record the music is to simply load a MIDI file into GZDoom (put it into a .WAD or .ZIP file), and let the MIDI play with OPL Synth emulator selected as a MIDI device (and record that with Audacity). Yes, I know there are some special programs (players) to directly play a MIDI file through OPL, but I just personally prefer GZDoom as the most reliable and best-sounding way how to do that.

Re: Some great OPL Synth music to listen on my Soundcloud channel

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 21:01
by Hisymak
Gridlock wrote: Sun Feb 03, 2019 3:01 I could potentially see exploring this kind of modern/retro fusion style if Voyage to Veota ever becomes a thing. It seems like it's a nice way to modernize the music without losing that old-school Keen style (not to mention not having to deal with the IMF format). I'm wondering how difficult these were to produce and what techniques you used, if you don't mind sharing. Thanks!
Actually your post has inspired me to play through Atroxian Realm! And after a month or two of playing (with some breaks), I can pretty honestly say, it's the best Commander Keen mod I've ever played!
I was specifically the most interested in its soundtrack, and it is really great, well-made and perfectly fits the game. There are some tracks I really like and which I'm replaying just to hear them, exactly like I do that for some Doom tracks.
And guess what I did - an OPL Synth rendition of one of the tracks, in the same manner, I did it for various Doom tracks! I picked up the music playing in the Great Ziggurat, as this is pretty nice one. I can see here the greatest improvement over the original sounding of the music, where the tubular bells did not really sound much like bells. I suppose this rendition might be how the music was originally intended to sound like.
Here you go, enjoy this piece: https://soundcloud.com/hisymak/atroxian ... t-ziggurat