Audio Samples as Custom MT-32 Instruments?

[Expack3]

While playing Dynamix's Quarky & Quaysoo's Turbo Science, I (rather obviously) found that when played with a Roland MT-32 , it only outputted music; however, when played with a SoundBlaster, I actually get audio samples along with music! This obviousness got me thinking - why couldn't you simply ship the audio samples as a custom set of MT-32 instruments which augment the default instrument set? To me, MT-32 instruments are analogous to SoundFont instruments, which were used by the MS-DOS game Eradicator and the original Windows release of Final Fantasy VII to load very high-quality sound onto a compatible SoundBlaster device, like the AWE-32 and 64 for the former and the Audigy for the latter. (It should be noted that the original PC version of Final Fantasy VII also used SoundFonts to add the choir audio samples used in the penultimate boss fight - otherwise, those samples were completely absent from the original PC version for non-SoundFont compatible hardware.)

[Collector]

The MT-32 is not like a SoundFont capable sound card. SoundFonts are essentially wavetables overlaid on top of the MIDI. The MT-32 is programmable, dynamically interacting with the MIDI input and output. This is why an MT-32 SoundFont can never be a substitute for the real hardware nor Munt. All that a SoundFont can do is to try to duplicate the MT-32 PCM samples. While you may be able to find a couple of games that use nothing more than the base sounds, those games are pretty rare.

I understand that this does not directly address your idea, but it is necessary to understand how a game uses the MT-32. To do what you suggest, you would have to alter the game's data to change the MT-32 programming to add the sounds. Even though Sierra shared code with Dynamix and there are similarities, there are far fewer tools to access the Dynamix data. The best way to do what you want is probably to hack the driver to append the part of the SB driver that plays the digital sounds on the Roland driver. This has been done (fan made) for some SCI0 and early SCI1 games. Dynamix has the extra challenge of the fact that the drivers are not stand alone files. Either way, you will need to hack the game data or the game's executable.

[Collector]

After I made the above post, I remembered that NRS has already hacked this game. The files in the attached ZIP allow simultaneous General MIDI/Roland MT-32 and SoundBlaster digital sound with Quarky & Quaysoo's Turbo Science. The game's SoundBlaster digital sounds are normally only available with General MIDI selected, because of a missing "break" in a "switch" statement. The included files fix this.

• Usage:
  For digital sound with General MIDI or MT-32, first run the game's installer in DOSBox to select either General MIDI or MT-32. Then run SETBLAST.COM to modify the RESOURCE.CFG to make the program also call AUDBLAST.DRV. There after the game can be started with TURBOSCI.EXE in DOSBox. You only need to use "SETBLAST.COM" whenever you change the sound device to GM or MT-32.

[Expack3]

The MT-32 is not like a SoundFont capable sound card. SoundFonts are essentially wavetables overlaid on top of the MIDI. The MT-32 is programmable, dynamically interacting with the MIDI input and output. This is why an MT-32 SoundFont can never be a substitute for the real hardware nor Munt. All that a SoundFont can do is to try to duplicate the MT-32 PCM samples. While you may be able to find a couple of games that use nothing more than the base sounds, those games are pretty rare.

I understand that this does not directly address your idea, but it is necessary to understand how a game uses the MT-32. To do what you suggest, you would have to alter the game's data to change the MT-32 programming to add the sounds. Even though Sierra shared code with Dynamix and there are similarities, there are far fewer tools to access the Dynamix data. The best way to do what you want is probably to hack the driver to append the part of the SB driver that plays the digital sounds on the Roland driver. This has been done (fan made) for some SCI0 and early SCI1 games. Dynamix has the extra challenge of the fact that the drivers are not stand alone files. Either way, you will need to hack the game data or the game's executable.

I see - I didn't know the two differed that greatly.

After I made the above post, I remembered that NRS has already hacked this game. The files in the attached ZIP allow simultaneous General MIDI/Roland MT-32 and SoundBlaster digital sound with Quarky & Quaysoo's Turbo Science. The game's SoundBlaster digital sounds are normally only available with General MIDI selected, because of a missing "break" in a "switch" statement. The included files fix this.

• Usage:
  For digital sound with General MIDI or MT-32, first run the game's installer in DOSBox to select either General MIDI or MT-32. Then run SETBLAST.COM to modify the RESOURCE.CFG to make the program also call AUDBLAST.DRV. There after the game can be started with TURBOSCI.EXE in DOSBox. You only need to use "SETBLAST.COM" whenever you change the sound device to GM or MT-32.

Thanks!

Also, I'd just like to ask a question: does the hack-based appending you mentioned actually allow the MT-32 to play audio samples normally meant for the SoundBlaster? Or does it merely allow the MT-32 to co-exist with the SoundBlaster, with the former playing music and the latter playing sound effects?

[Collector]

If I understand what NRS has done here, it is different than the MT32BLAST.DRV and the GMBLAST.DRV. The hack seems to be in two parts. One to allow both drivers to run concurrently and the SETBLAST.COM to make the additional entry to the RESOURCE.CFG to tell the game to use both so music is played as Roland or GM while the SB driver is playing the digital audio. I might give some thought to writing a small Win32 app replacement for the original INSTALL.EXE and the SETBLAST.COM to streamline it into a one step process and not require DOSBox just to configure that game. None of my installers support MT-32 configuration as it requires the user to have a real MT-32 module or at least Munt. And the IP rights for the required ROMs for Munt are, shall we say, tenuous at best. If I could clearly distribute the ROMs without question, I would include them and Munt with many of the earlier SCI games and offer it as an option for those games.