Colonel's Bequest - the GM vs MT Sounds (Converted to MP3 for the video)

[Tawmis]

I think later, I have it set to release just the GM and MT versions separately - I can't remember because I have like 40 videos pending release at Midnight each day.

[notbobsmith]

I didn't know Colonel's Bequest had General MIDI sound. I don't see a driver for it in the game files.

[Collector]

You are right. Even KQ5 (SCI1 vs SCI0) did not. Perhaps with RAVI's drivers you could simulate it, but it would sound bad. The soundtrack was written for MT-32.

[Tawmis]

Obtained from Quest Studios Archive. Shows the MT version as well as General MIDI (Sound Canvas) Version.

EDIT: Just ran the Install.bat - and I see everything from MT down to PC Speaker. So I am sure, without trying it (obviously rule out Adlib and Soundblaster, but there's like 6 other sound options), one of them is that Sound Canvas Midi?

I just assume if they did PC SPEAKER they probably did one up with MIDI.

[Collector]

The first Sound Canvas, the SC-55 came out in 1991, so we are talking somewhere about the SCI1.1 era for the first SC/GM games. Perhaps MI knows the first Sierra GM game. INSTALL will call it "General MIDI Sound Driver".

[BBP]

Hey Tawm, not sure if you noticed there are huge gaps between the tracks here and there? Around the 23m mark for instance there's a 5-min gap.

[Tawmis]

Hey Tawm, not sure if you noticed there are huge gaps between the tracks here and there? Around the 23m mark for instance there's a 5-min gap.

Interesting! I will need to check. I wonder if something happened when I converted these to MP3 to cause these gaps in silence.

[MusicallyInspired]

Colonel's Bequest never supported GM officially. And the fan drivers don't do a perfect job translating the MT instruments to GM all the time. If you got the MIDI from Quest Studios then it was one of Tom's manually reworked MIDIs for an alternate listening experience or for people who didn't have an MT-32.

The first GM-compatible Sierra game was probably the Windows version of KQ5CD which has an entirely different library of MIDI tracks specifically for Windows GM. But it wasn't composed for it. SCI1.1 games natively support GM/Sound Canvas. However, LB2 was composed for the MT-32 despite this and has GM support as an afterthought. KQ6 was optimized nicely for both so you could go either way, but I'd suggest General MIDI as there's a lot of piano in that score and MT-32's piano patch is atrocious. Most SCI1.1 games though are GM-centric. The ones that aren't are SQ4CD, LB2, and QFG1VGA. Play those 3 with MT-32.

As for the first SCI1.1 game? I'm not sure. But SCI1.1 games have General MIDI as a music option in the INSTALL.EXE. That's how you know which ones are General MIDI compatible. Having MIDI music though is not indicative of General MIDI support. MT-32 is MIDI too it's just a different instrument mapping list. General MIDI mapping standard didn't exist until 1991, as Collector said, and many SCI games support MIDI (MT-32 and the Yamaha FB-01 for instance) before that.

[Collector]

Wasn't GM only available for KQ5 under Windows? None of the versions I have ever seen shipped with a DOS GM driver.

[Collector]

There is the Sierra provided aftermarket GM for EQ1, Hoyle3, LSL1, LSL5, Longbow, SQ1SCI, SQ4, and MUFT.

[MusicallyInspired]

Wasn't GM only available for KQ5 under Windows?

Yeah that's what I said.

[Tawmis]

Man, that SIERRA BBS screen shot though. Brings back the memories.