Why does this happen when I listen to Midis?

[MrBlaskovitz]

I've come to the realization that DOOM's music does not sound how it does outside the game.
If you listen to doom's music in the game it sounds flat and simple. Nothing really special about it's sound.

But if you listen to the Official Soundtrack Album made by Bobby Prince (I couldn't find the original upload so here's this)

 

It literally sounds more defined, full and makes it seem like more production was put into it.

A little more specifically, I'm talking about the small amount if reverb and kick in it.

 

Now, why is it that we can't hear music like that in the game?
The obvious answer is that PCs were limited when it comes to sound quality back then. But I still ask this same question.

An example is that, when I find a good midi online, it sounds great, but when I download it and use it/Listen to it, it sounds a lot worse
(Here's the example and what I mean, Listen to this and then download it and tell me if its sounds better the the site)
 

Edited September 2, 2023 by MrBlaskovitz

[SilentD00mer]

Probably it's just that Doom can't handle the instruments very well. Midi seems to be a set of instructions for the PC to emulate the music based on a "bank of instruments" or something like that (I can't say how it works, and someone correct me, please), so it relies on 'soundfonts' to work. So the quality of the music depends on that 'soundfont', unfortunately :(

[bofu]

A MIDI file is not audio. It is a series of commands that are sent to a MIDI playback device (either software or hardware), which carries out the commands. Each MIDI playback device has its own version of the general MIDI instrument sounds, so if you play back a MIDI on Windows without any special hardware versus feed through a Roland SC-88 physical device versus play it back through a software utility that loads a custom collection of sounds called a soundfont, you'll get different playback results and instrument qualities.

Edited September 2, 2023 by bofu

[MrBlaskovitz]

19 minutes ago, SilentD00mer said:

So it relies on 'soundfonts' to work. So the quality of the music depends on that 'soundfont'

So you're telling me that if I change the soundfont, it can sound how the original midi is supposed to sound?

Edited September 2, 2023 by MrBlaskovitz

[Mario2560]

1 minute ago, MrBlaskovitz said:

So you're telling me that if I change the soundfont, it can sound like the original midi is supposed to sound?

Yeah, providing that you used a good-sounding soundfont, like the Roland SC-55 or Arachno soundfonts.

 

[MrBlaskovitz]

1 minute ago, Mario2560 said:

Yeah, providing that you used a good-sounding soundfont, like the Roland SC-55 or Arachno soundfonts.

 

What are you doing here mario? Get on that call Pookie Wookie ;)

[Mario2560]

1 minute ago, MrBlaskovitz said:

What are you doing here mario? Get on that call Pookie Wookie ;)

ay what

[Cutman 999]

23 minutes ago, MrBlaskovitz said:

So you're telling me that if I change the soundfont, it can sound how the original midi is supposed to sound?

Amm, yes actually that's the way.

[Cutman 999]

21 minutes ago, Mario2560 said:

Yeah, providing that you used a good-sounding soundfont, like the Roland SC-55 or Arachno soundfonts.

 

Arachno is crazy good, sounds really grungy like the sega genesis 

[Mario2560]

1 minute ago, Cutman 999 said:

Arachno is crazy good, sounds really grungy like the sega genesis 

I agree, I've always been a sucker for how the genesis sounds.

 

[SilentD00mer]

37 minutes ago, MrBlaskovitz said:

So you're telling me that if I change the soundfont, it can sound how the original midi is supposed to sound?

Well, yes, or at least it can get very close. I'd suggest you this video, from Doomkid:

 

[gibfrag]

Midis for Doom and other games around that time like Duke 3D were done in a way that they could support multiple sound cards of the 90s. Most people remember it sounding a certain way because of the hardware they had. 

[Darkcrafter07]

I think there are two best representations of what Doom music was supposed to sound best if made with MIDI:

 

1) The real Roland SC-55 unit that Bobby Prince used to compose his tracks with;

2) GENMIDI OPL2/3, e.g. ingame's adlib "soundfont" that was also designed by Bobby Prince and I like it far more than everything else.

I though some of the original MIDI files contained information on the amounts of reverb and chorus were set per channel? Well, not all sound hardware of the time supported those.

Now to answer your question. I can hear it was rearranged really well, especially E1M8, real guitars there, apparently. No soundfont can do that, so as someone who makes music and plays guitar, I definitely agree with:

 

4 hours ago, MrBlaskovitz said:

more production was put into it.

Here is a thing, throughout the time Doom is there, so many replays and covers were made that make Bobby's album sound like a joke. I'm really sorry about that guys but this is my opinion. It was also like lots of music that found in Doom was ripped of metal, which is much better presented by something like this, it's a subjective opinion for sure:

MIDIs are pretty much sketches before the real recordings kick in, just like fundamentals of your songs, so thank you to Bobby Prince who made them, it costs a lot.

Edited September 2, 2023 by Darkcrafter07

[No-Man Baugh]

Doom relies on external midi playback devices, and the stock midi playback that comes on modern windows is trash. So if you want stuff like more reverb or chorus than I'd recommend trying out VirtualMIDISynth:

there's also emulators like FluidSynth and Timidity, which is more compatible with other systems and is less hacky than VMS, but to me atleast there's a bit of a learning curve to using them since they're mostly command-line

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

In this thread, a nazi-killing Garfield flirts with Mario, who tells Garfield that the Arachno soundfont is "how the original midi is supposed to sound". Crazy shit, Pookie Wookie.

 

No really, if your goal is accuracy towards the "intended sound", Arachno should probably be one of your last options.

[riktoi]

There's this upload by barbarianbros on YouTube that is recorded via an SC-55 mkII which is as close as you will get:

 

Alternatively, you need to get an actual, physical SC-55 to get it to sound how it was meant to sound. Or you can try this Soundfont created by zz_denis:

 

[Individualised]

On 9/3/2023 at 7:27 AM, riktoi said:

There's this upload by barbarianbros on YouTube that is recorded via an SC-55 mkII which is as close as you will get:

 

Alternatively, you need to get an actual, physical SC-55 to get it to sound how it was meant to sound. Or you can try this Soundfont created by zz_denis:

 

OP, this is the answer you're looking for.