New to OpenXCom, would like to provide Roland MT-32 captures

[skyhawk]

UPDATE 2023-04-02
This is now completely obsolete and nobody should play OpenXCom with it ever again!

You want my new MUNT emulated CM-32L recordings -> here
------------------------------------

Hello,

I just discovered OpenXCom earlier today. I played the hell out of X-Com and TFTD back in the day, and I happened to be fortunate enough to own a Roland MT-32 when I did so.

It so happens that I still own it, and it's connected to my computer and works from within DosBOX, and I'm setup to capture it's output.

If someone a bit more familiar with the music situation with OpenXCom would like to work with me and answer a few questions, I'd be delighted to provide MT-32 captures for the music from X-Com and TFTD.

Apologies is this is the incorrect sub-forum to post this in. If I should be posting elsewhere please advise.

For those new to the thread: Revision 3 of the MT-32 music pack is currently available -
Dropbox

This release has been down-sampled to 44kHz, disregard any previous instructions about setting a 48kHz sample rate.

Readme:

Code: [Select]

This is revision 3 of my OpenXCom Enemy Unknown MT-32 music pack.

Unless the developers give me a way to offset-loop music in the future, I do not expect there to be any future releases. Yes, that's what I said for revision 2.

Due to popular demand and apparent issues with 48KHz Playback in OpenXCOM that I haven't personally encountered, this release has been down-sampled to 44.1 kHz. As I no longer have the original Audacity cuts used to generate this release, this has been downsampled from the .ogg versions of revision 2.

There are three caveats:
1) Due to how it loops, the first second or so of the Interception music sounds a little lousy (reverb from just before the looping point).
2) The Cydonia briefing differs significantly from the General MIDI version of the same song, and sounds much more bare.
3) There is a police siren present during the opening sequence as played on a CM-32L or LAPC-I, that is not present on the MT-32.

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Install like any other OpenXCom Music Pack:

Extract the contents into <datadirectory>/SOUND, overwriting as necessary.

In Game Options -> Audio, make the following changes:
set Music Format to OGG, or else make sure there are no other GM*.* files in the directory.
Set Audio Sample Rate to 44.1 KHz
---------------

Further details might be available at:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2270.0


[SupSuper]

That sounds awesome. Did X-COM take advantage of the Roland MT-32? I don't remember.

What information do you need? OpenXcom supports any music in any standard format (FLAC/OGG/MP3/etc), preferably cut for seamless looping. You can find examples of music packs here.

The game tracks are as follows:
GMDEFEND - Briefing music for base defenses and terror missions
GMENBASE - Briefing music for the rest
GMGEO1 - Geoscape (Variation 1)
GMGEO2 - Geoscape (Variation 2)
GMINTER - Dogfight / Interception music
GMINTRO1 - Intro (Part I)
GMINTRO2 - Intro (Part II)
GMINTRO3 - Intro (Part III)
GMLOSE - Game Over music
GMMARS - Debriefing music after a mission
GMNEWMAR - Briefing music for the Cydonia mission
GMSTORY - Main Menu music
GMTACTIC - Battlescape music
GMWIN - Victory music

[skyhawk]

Both XCOM and TFTD could use the MT-32 for music, though neither even tried to do sound via the MT-32. (Which is good from the perspective of trying to capture music). I honestly preferred the music from TFTD (which is actually the game I played first). I can't recall off the top of my head if either game used custom patches.

Ideally someone could provide some savegames so I simply have to "load" each game and capture one or more pieces, then load the next game.

I haven't done a whole lot of audio editing work. If someone would be interested in processing the raw captures that would work, else if someone has a handy guide to producing the needed results in Audacity that would be great.

[yrizoud]

The linked page includes a MIDI-MT32_GS_2.51.zip, I don't know how different it sounds from music played with the actual Roland MT-32

[skyhawk]

The linked page includes a MIDI-MT32_GS_2.51.zip, I don't know how different it sounds from music played with the actual Roland MT-32

Looks like it used a General Midi (mt-32 emulation) patchset. I expect it sounds terrible and nothing like the real thing. Downloading it now...

ew. yep. Nothing at all like the real thing.

[skyhawk]

Does the original game use some kind of logic to determine which Geoscape music to play? I've captured about 20 minutes, and I'm having a hard time picking out the start of GMGEO1. I'm almost thinking they're the same piece of music, cut up and looped with different beginning and ending positions.

I'm comparing to the GM-Ultrasound zip by Fenyo.

[Tarvis]

There's two Geoscape tracks, and they don't play sequentially (it loops the same one). The first time the game goes to the Geoscape it will play GMGEO1. Once you do a mission and come back, it should do GMGEO2, and so on.

[skyhawk]

Got it!

Capturing now, thanks.

[skyhawk]

Huh.

The Geoscape musics for the MT-32 actually loop seamlessly in-game.

[skyhawk]

There's two Geoscape tracks, and they don't play sequentially (it loops the same one). The first time the game goes to the Geoscape it will play GMGEO1. Once you do a mission and come back, it should do GMGEO2, and so on.

Does it just round-robin between the two, even across savegames, or will it _always_ start with GMGEO1 on a New Game? I'm picking at nits here, but I want to do this as correctly as possible.

Edit: Just answered my own question, it round-robins, and may start a New Game with either GMGEO1 or GMGEO2.

[SupSuper]

My advice for recording the tracks would be:
- Record the intro with sound effects disabled.
- Start a New Game, shoot down a UFO, go to the crash site and abort. This alone should get you the Main Menu music, Geoscape 1 music, Interception music, Briefing music, Battlescape music, Debriefing music and Geoscape Music 2.
- To record the Lose Game music, just sit on your ass until you inevitably lose.
- Get a late-game save like the one found here. This should let you get the Base Attack Briefing music if you wait around, or send a craft to Cydonia to get the Mars Briefing music. To get the Win Game music you probably have to actually beat it though.

Does it just round-robin between the two, even across savegames, or will it _always_ start with GMGEO1 on a New Game? I'm picking at nits here, but I want to do this as correctly as possible.

From what I could tell from testing, the Geoscape track variation is kinda crazy:
- First time you start a game it will always play GMGEO1.
- Loading a game from the Geoscape has no effect, the last track will keep playing.
- Loading a game from the Main Menu, it plays GMGEO1 if the save slot is odd, and GMGEO2 if the save slot is even.
- Tactical battles seem to switch to GMGEO2, while interceptions switch to GMGEO1.

Note that this only applies to UFO. TFTD has many more track variations, so they're probably actually random.

[shinr]

For reference, GMGEO1 and GMGEO2 are around 8 and 9 minutes long, respectively, give or take 20 seconds.

[skyhawk]

My advice for recording the tracks would be:
- Record the intro with sound effects disabled.
- Start a New Game, shoot down a UFO, go to the crash site and abort. This alone should get you the Main Menu music, Geoscape 1 music, Interception music, Briefing music, Battlescape music, Debriefing music and Geoscape Music 2.
- To record the Lose Game music, just sit on your ass until you inevitably lose.
- Get a late-game save like the one found here. This should let you get the Base Attack Briefing music if you wait around, or send a craft to Cydonia to get the Mars Briefing music. To get the Win Game music you probably have to actually beat it though.

Fantastic advice, thanks. I think I've got satisfactory captures of everything but GMDEFEND, GMNEWMAR, and GMWIN. I'll probably post a teaser up on Youtube sometime this eve. Any requests? GMLOSE was kinda interesting (I've never heard it before. I always rage-quit and restart long before I get to an official game-over).

[skyhawk]

Here's the teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugc54iqpkGE

[skyhawk]

I'm not certain how I'm supposed to cut up the intro. On my setup, the INTRO1 segment only lasts 14 seconds, and cuts directly into INTRO2. I have no idea where the GUS soundtrack got that extra 6 seconds...