butsam
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 114
Registered: 05-20-2003
IP: Logged

I don't know about the rest of you, but I personally think MIDIs are better than other musical forms (except possibly MP3s, but I know DROD doesn't use those). Half of the fun of MIDIs are that you can mess around with them if you have a sequencer, and that it is very easy to import very good music into the game. Also, it's fun to rearrange the music into a right and left hand, print it out, and pluck it out on the piano. But let's not forget the MAIN advantage: it is VERY easy to let architects change the music to their own tastes on their own levels! There are some MIDI sequencers available for free, and most are low-price. All at 1/100 the size of an MP3!

I know the argument is that some people don't have a good sound card. Let's face it--on a system with a bad sound card, a MIDI is going to sound fairly crappy...but that's true with ANY sound on a system with a bad sound card. But on certain systems, MIDIs sound even better than current DROD music. The prime example is the SoundBlaster Live! series. I mean, I think the DROD music is VERY well-done, but I just think a change in formats to MIDI (or at least the OPTION to use MIDI) would be a VERY good addition, mainly since the users can create their own music for their own dungeons, and there are other advantages to be gained as well. Pretty please with sugar on top? If it's not too much of a hassle. If I can help at all with the sequencing or anything, let me know as well.

Sam

PS: It's also fun to go back and play older games that used MIDIs now that MIDI technology is better...it's so funny to hear this wonderful sound coming out, but the old-school graphics and interface Prime example: Gabriel Knight, King's Quests that used MIDI, Space Quests that used MIDI. If DROD used MIDI, it would only sound even better 5 years down the road, when everyone had a copy of DROD, with literally no modifications to the sound!

[Edited by butsam on 07-17-2003 at 08:19 PM]

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Butsam wrote:
I know the argument is that some people don't have a good sound card.

Well, my argument is actually that you don't get consistent instruments on different computers. There is the general MIDI mapping that will guarantee something similar, but small differences in instruments can be extremely meaningful. The composer may have intended a muffled piano note, but on a second computer, the note is played crisp and jarring. Also many really good sounds aren't represented in general MIDI, expecially those that aren't analogous to a physical instrument.

To be more concrete, I've listened to Lars' Kristian Aasbrenn's original music for DROD on different computers and got widely varying results. This guy knew MIDI and sound cards quite well, and even insisted on making 3 different versions of each song tailored to sound cards popular at the time. Still, I heard his stuff get butchered.

Let's face it--on a system with a bad sound card, a MIDI is going to sound fairly crappy...but that's true with ANY sound on a system with a bad sound card.

Well, sorta. Even an ancient SB16 has a digital-to-analog converter that gives us what we need for quality music. With S3M and other MOD-style formats, software mixing is performed instead of using capabilities of the sound card, and the resulting output gets sent to the DAC. So the sound card doesn't have to be anything special, since the CPU is doing the mixing work. The sound library we have (FMOD) takes only a tiny amount of CPU to mix stuff.

But on certain systems, MIDIs sound even better than current DROD music. The prime example is the SoundBlaster Live! series.

I agree. Tradeoffs.

I mean, I think the DROD music is VERY well-done, but I just think a change in formats to MIDI (or at least the OPTION to use MIDI) would be a VERY good addition, mainly since the users can create their own music for their own dungeons, and there are other advantages to be gained as well.

I'm not anywhere near convinced to go back to MIDI, however it is possible right now to edit DROD.INI so that it uses MIDI songs instead of the songs in S3M format that come with DROD. For a full list of supported formats, go check out www.fmod.org.

Also coming on DROD.net, LKA's original DROD music in both MIDI and MP3 format.

-Erik


____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

butsam
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 114
Registered: 05-20-2003
IP: Logged

Erik, again you amaze me--good points to be made, and I am glad that there is still the option of using a MIDI even before it was requested! Keep up the good work.

Sam