Improved DOSBox music settings - (Era compliant)

[Satribe]

Back in the day, I had a Roland midi card attached to my SoundBlaster sound card. Trust me. It makes a difference. To get a taste of what I was listening to when playing these games, take a look at the following.

The autoexec.bat file that comes from the free Bethesda download of the game and included on the Anthology CD has this line to start the game and setup sound devices:

Code: Select all

A -Sa:220 -Si:7 -Sd:1 -Ma:220 -Mq:7 -Md:1 -Ssbdig.adv -Msbfm.adv

Try changing that last option from "-Msbfm.adv" to "-Mgenmidi.adv". (options with "S" =soundcard "M"=midi device)

Code: Select all

A -Sa:220 -Si:7 -Sd:1 -Ma:220 -Mq:7 -Md:1 -Ssbdig.adv -Mgenmidi.adv

This will also work with v1.07 if you change the "A" to "ACD". The CD version also updated the identifiers for the options, but it will also accept the old ones. So instead of "A -Sa:220..." for 1.06, you might see "ACD -IOS220..." for 1.07. The full line for v1.07 would look like this:

Code: Select all

ACD -ioS220 -irqS7 -dmaS1 -ioM220 -irqM7 -dmaM1 -Ssbpdig.adv -Mgenmidi.adv

What is this doing?

Option "-Ssbpdig.adv" tells the game you have a SoundBlaster card and DOSBox emulates one for you. However computers couldn't play midi files without a special midi device and the sound cards you bought didn't have them either. But the SoundBlaster (and others) could process midi commands through their noise generators to synthesize instruments. (That's kind of a laymen explanation and my specifics may be off.) So the option "-Msbfm.adv" is telling the game/computer to pass midi commands to the Sound Blaster FM synthesizer. (sbfm). Nothing wrong with that. That's probably what 90% of the players were listening to.

But I had purchased a Roland midi card that plugged into my SoundBlaster. This card was a dedicated midi synthesizer and used wavetable sounds. I think it cost me around 300 US dollars. (Wasn't bought for games...but hey...bonus!) (I'm not 100% sure that Arena could take full advantage of the wavetable synthesis, but the general midi commands would still be processed by the Roland.)

DOSBox doesn't emulate the Roland, but your modern computer probably does. (Not the exact Roland, but often uses wavetable synthesis for a similar sound improvement over FM synthesis.) Because modern computers have their own built in midi devices, DOSBox does not emulate one, but simply passes the commands to your computers midi device. Making the change to "-Mgenmidi.adv" (general midi) takes advantage of this. When you use "-Msbfm.adv" you are emulating a sound card that is emulating a midi device.

True; it's pretty good at reproducing what most players heard, but in the 90's I had something that I thought was pretty "Awesome". And now I can share it with you too.

[SeaGtGruff]

I've been wanting to see if I can play the MIDI through one of my Yamaha keyboards.

[Satribe]

That's pretty cool. I saw a few pages where they were doing that, but I didn't really look at them. But apparently it's possible. I mean since DOSbox is just passing it on to the PC, then it makes sense that it could pass it on to the keyboard.

You'll have to let me know if you ever do that and get it working. I've got an old Yamaha sitting next to me, it might be fun to try.

[Satribe]

I discovered that I can use soundfont files (.sf2) natively on my mac and just point DOSBox to the files. (wavetable sample files used by midi devices) Way better than the default. Drums that sound like real drums. I'm starting to see why so many people have mixed and matched their own sf2 files. "Oooo the attack on the strings is too soft for these early DOS games, but I love that snare drum. Hmmm...and the flute from this package...and...and. I think I'm just going to pick one and live with it or I'll start trying to learn how to make my own.

[Satribe]

More sound quirks.

For ver1.06 I noticed that the INSTALL.EXE and default autoexec ARENA.BAT set up a different parameter for music than the executable A.EXE calls for in the internal help.
The default batch file and what INSTALL will produce if the SoundBlaster 16 is selected is this:
@A -sa:220 -si:7 -sd:1 -ma:220 -mq:7 -md:1 -ssbdig.adv -msbfm.adv
The first three settings are for sound; sa (sound Address) si (sound IRQ) sd (sound DMA). The midi setup use the same thing except using “m” instead of “s”. Well, almost the same. For midi IRQ, instead of recording “mi:7”, compared to “si:7” for sound, it replaces the “i” with a “q”. “mq:7”

Now, some DOS executables would try and help you out if you tried to use the wrong commands. So at the DOS prompt if you type A -purple (A.exe -purple), the Arena program quits and displays a list of parameters it is expecting. Oddly, this lists the parameter for midi IRQ as “-mi” and not the “-mq” that INSTALL creates for you.

Will this effect your sound? It’s hard to say. Which one is correct? Is the little help notice wrong or is the INSTALL configuration wrong? The game appears to work with both, but what if you’re not using the default IRQ’s?

Another oddity is that when you type an incorrect parameter to get the help information, it shows that “ACD” is the correct entry which is used for the CD version instead of the expected “A” for the floppy versions.

Other details that don’t matter:

• The parameters that INSTALL creates are the same going all the way back to the DEMO.]
• The DEMO using INSTALL ver2.3
• Arena 1.03 uses INSTALL ver2.31
  These are a little difficult to use. You have go through each option and set them every time. If you go in and only try to change the midi settings, the Arena.bat will only include those settings and nothing for your sound card.
• Arena 1.04 uses the same INSTALL ver2.31
• Arena 1.05 includes the current version of the installer ver2.6 which stores your settings in the file SOUND.CFG.
  This is so much better and allows you to make minor changes without being required to re-enter all the information. Up to this point the Arena executables (A.exe) do not include a helper notice if a bad parameter is entered. Some random entries seem to be ignored while others will drop to a C prompt, but appears frozen in DOSBox. No further entries can be made.
• Arena 1.06 uses the same INSTALL as 1.05 (ver2.6), but this executable includes the helper notice that can be displayed by typing “A -purple” at the dos prompt.
• Arena 1.07 uses a different parameter scheme and includes a different INSTALL. (Ver4.04) The parameter entries are more descriptive. Instead of using “Sa” for the sound cards InOut Address, we find “ioS”; and “dmaS” for the Direct Memory Address value