What soundfont do you use to play doom?

[doomguykiller69]

Which soundfont do you use or which one is your favorite?

[Okej5722]

OPL/Soundblaster.

[Charlie Love]

SC 55 1.2b

[doomguykiller69]

14 minutes ago, Charlie Love said:

SC 55 1.2b

A classic :D

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by doomguykiller69

[URROVA]

i use the arachno sf2, not only for doom but for midi in general.

[continuum.mid]

I've found SC-55 (EmperorGrieferus) to be the most consistently listenable, so that's what I use. But I gotta say, when Arachno Soundfont works, it works really, really well - I've been using it to compose MIDIs lately and I'm on the edge of switching to it for gameplay.

[Arrowhead]

I use Patch93's SC-55. Its not perfect, but I've been using it for so long - Arachno is also pretty damn good.

[dmdr]

8mbgm_enhanced has never done me wrong

[Lippeth]

No soundfont usually. As far as software synth, Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth is unmatched for Doom in my opinion. Even though I have two hardware SC-55s stacked on top of each other, I still use GS Wave about 3/4 of the time. When a specific program I'm using only allows soundfonts for music I use RLNDGM.SF2 which is almost a 1:1 with GS Wave. Occasionally I'll load in something like Star Fox or OPL3 soundfonts as a novelty but that usually doesn't last very long.

[Bobby :D]

Columbo, downright the most compatible soundfont besides a real SC-55. Has some Arachno grit with some of the best midi drums, while retaining some of the SC-55 instruments with a more roomy timbre.

 

[Wavy]

I used to use the EmperorGrieferus SC-55 soundfont, but I recently switched to gm.dls Remastered:

 

Sounds like the regular GM but... remastered (who would of thunk it?)

Edited August 28, 2021 by Wavy

[garu32]

Sound Canvas 55

[Nikku4211]

In Chocolate Doom, I use EAWPATS.

 

In source ports that actually use .SF2s, I use an SC-55 soundfont.

 

The SC-55 soundfont I use seems to be called 'SC-55.SoundFont.v1.2b.sf2'.

 

OPL2 and OPL3 can sound great, but it doesn't seem like DMX makes good use of it, and Doom's soundtrack was made for the SC-55 anyway, not OPL chips.

[Doomkid]

Can't go wrong with RlndGM.sf2. I would dare to say this is how 75% of 90s Doomers heard the music, myself included. It’s a good thing MS happened to pick a soundfont (well, dls but whatever) that was almost identical to what Bobby used for composing!

 

Hearing Doom songs any other way is usually cool for a change, but if I’m playing a wad for the first time, I always switch back to good ol’ RlndGM.

 

By the way, if you use SCC1T2.sf2 or GM.sf2, I urge you to switch to RlndGM. It’s the exact same, but it fixes some out of tune instruments and improves instrument volume levels to better match one another!

[Bucket]

Microsoft default is good enough for me. 99% of the Roland sound without having to do any work. Besides, too many Soundfonts have irregular levels for their instruments. A lot of tracks get lost in the mix, particularly drums.

[Steve D]

It wasn't so long ago that we had another thread on this topic, and I'll say the same thing I said then -- after testing a bunch of soundfonts, I went back to MSGWS and have been happy ever since.

 

Of the soundfonts I tested, probably Timbres of Heaven was the worst. In its efforts to be epic it instead becomes ponderous. Absolutely destroyed numerous tracks in the OST for Realm of Chaos 2. Typical problems included overloud percussion and weird guitars.

 

Arachno, when it was good, was absolutely magnificent. But when it wasn't good, it was horrifyingly bad. I mean absolutely dreadful. Once again, several tracks in Realm of Chaos 2 were ruined by this font. One problem was completely unpredictable guitar sounds compared to MSGWS versions. In one case, the sound of a heartbeat was completely eliminated by Arachno. So now the soundfont is a music editor?

 

I could go into the Patch93 and EmperorGrieferus SC-55 fonts and say that both were good and far more reliable than the fancy fonts like Arachno and Timbres of Heaven, but even they differed from MSGWS -- and each other -- often enough to make me discard them.

 

If all our midis were composed for Arachno, that would be great, because IMO it has the most killer sound. But they're not. I'm guessing that north of 90% of our midis are composed for MSGWS. Use a different font and you never know what you'll get. Players who use nothing but Arachno must notice the occasional weird-sounding track. IMO, if you compare YouTube videos where Arachno is used to play, for example, the TNT:Revilution OST, and then listen to Jeremy Doyle's videos of the same music but through his SC-55 system, IMO it's clear that SC-55 is better, but while that sound is very similar to MSGWS, it's not the same.

 

The situation is so dire, in my view, that when Realm of Chaos 2 is released, the text file will include the following message, "We advise players to stick with the default Microsoft General Wavetable Synth and to avoid using the Arachno or Timbres of Heaven soundfonts."

 

Now, what I'd really like to see is the community move to tracker music. ;)

[ducon]

According to prboom-plus.cfg, I’m using TimGM6mb.sf2 that is in the timgm6mb-soundfont Debian package.

In *zdoom, I don’t know.

Edited August 28, 2021 by ducon

[BaileyTW]

The one time I tried to change the soundfont from MS default I messed things up enough where I couldn't change the volume of midis except by changing the volume of all midis at once not in game, so decided to give up on that. I just use the default which I wouldn't know the name of.

[Dusty_Rhodes]

Originally, an SC-55 soundfont that was very good. Recently, I've switched to WeedsGM3.sf2. Really like it TNT and (unsurprisingly) Eternal Doom's midis sound great on it.

[BerserkerNoir]

SC-55.sf2 the classic of classics.

[msx2plus]

i usually use my SC-88pro (in SC-88 mode as i'm pretty fond of those sounds) but will sometimes switch to 55 mode. otherwise though i use the standard windows stuff, though sometimes through fluidsynth. it's what most people compose for these days, so i figure i should hear it the same way.

 

[edit] somehow totally spaced on it, but sometimes OPL emulation as well. i grew up with adlib, so i'm quite fond of it.

 

@Wavy that's a fantastic retooling of gm.dls! cheers for mentioning it.

Edited August 28, 2021 by msx2plus

[doomguykiller69]

All of you my friends have a good ear for SF in doom! I have tried all SF's and they are amazing!

[Mike Stu]

I'm a Griefus guy myself (Roland SC-55 v3.7.sf2). RlndGM.sf2 sounds super good too! Highly recommend checking out Doomkid's topic on this.

[peach freak]

Sound Blaster AWE32 (the soundcard my grandmother had in her computer when I played Doom on it, largely use this just for Ultimate Doom, the instruments are pretty gritty and fit Doom well)

Sound Blaster Live! (a more cleaned up Sound Blaster AWE32)

[Gibbon]

For ZDoom, MSGWS

[Lemonzest]

SGM-v2.01.sf2 :) using FluidSynth, reverb and chorus off

Edited August 30, 2021 by Lemonzest

[forgettable pyromaniac]

8mbgm_enhanced18.sf2 using Timidity++.

[TuomasGaming]

FluidSynth with GZDOOM. The only one which sounds like the original music.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

2 hours ago, TuomasGaming said:

FluidSynth with GZDOOM. The only one which sounds like the original music.

FluidSynth is not a soundfont. If you're aiming for "accurate" music, try an SC-55 soundfont, or RindGM like Doomkid said (haven't tested it myself, but I'll take his word for it lol). Using straight up FluidSynth with GzDOOM's default configuration (and the included soundfont that it uses) is a pretty different sound than what was originally intended.

 

Anyway, to answer OP's question, my favorite part of the gif is when he bends his knees and raises his arms.

Edited August 30, 2021 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[dbly]

This might be kind of stupid but to me the default Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth font that comes with Windows sounds the most natural (likely because I grew up playing ZDoom and it was the default soundfont)