Update: 17Oct04

[Tom]

The complete MT-32 "Adventures Of Willy Beamish" soundtrack is now available for download, thanks to Alistair.

[Alistair]

Yeah, finally! What's up with that Alistair character..

Seriously.. there's a LOT of music to record. Well, more correctly, a lot of places in 150 minutes of music for something to go wrong..
Like, an instrument being too loud, or too quiet (I *hate* BumpBass!!).. same for the various sound effects I included in the file. (Kept the 'game feel' intact.)
Another annoying quirk was instruments cutting each other off. I'm fairly sure I fixed most problems. Too hard to fix everything, though.

At any rate. A lot of good rock and rhythm stuff here. Anyone with a MT-32 will enjoy this MIDI all week.

- Alistair

[Ari]

I'm listening to it now. I'll let you know in two and a half hours...  :wink:

[Alistair]

Heh. Hopefully you don't have a list of mistakes by then..

Look forward to hearing your feedback.

- Alistair

[Tom]

Did you 'enhance' the soundtrack in some way, or is it a straight recording from the MT-32?

[Alistair]

No way is it straight MT-32!

Almost *all* 'Willy' tracks have Pan controllers set to 64. Unlike other Dynamix games like 'Heart of China', Willy features thin, 1-voice timbres. So where 'Heart of China', for example, has lots of reverb and instruments that 'spread' over a pan range of 30 or so, Willy has default reverb (usually) and thin instruments (some larger ones, but not many) that are heard where they're panned. Some tracks, the ebst stuff, got special attention from the composers and had complex panning ('Spider' was an obvious example of this). Most stuff didn't though.

That is- if I hadn't panned them left and right, most tracks would all have default 'in-the-middle' 64 panning.. you know, Tom.

I didn't bother putting any SysEx in the file. Waste of time changing the reverb for every individual track.. only a couple benefit from extra reverb. I'll probably record the ones for the CD I intend on doing at reverb 6, that said.

I've done some considerable work with sound effects and fixing up tracks as well.. (All the Upstairs and House themes have had extra bits tacked on) so no. Not straight from the MT at all.

- Alistair

[Ari]

I've listened to about 2/3s of it. A little too many sound effects imo.
Other than that, it's a very good soundtrack.

[Tom]

That was my only suggestion as well...too many sound effects.  Seems like a bit of repetition, too.   I've only made it about half-way through so far.  The drum set used is very difficult to translate to another instrument; lot of manual work.  Most of the patches can be pretty well duplicated for GS or XG by combining sounds.  (I'm working on another XG conversion, now.  But the percussion is slowing me down.  ED can handle it well, but not all the same sounds are in XG.)  Hard to believe, though, that these guys did Heart Of China...which I think is a far better soundtrack, mujsically speaking.

[Alistair]

Hard to believe, though, that these guys did Heart Of China...which I think is a far better soundtrack, mujsically speaking.

I'd say this is a common perception.. but I personally disagree. I think HOC's soundtrack was vastly inferior. Heart of China is a 'soundtarck' soundtrack. Nice while you're visiting the places.. but very few lasting themes; that is, themes which you remember and say "Oh! I really liked that piece where Lucky did this.."
I can think of less than 10 pieces that stick with me from the game.. less than 5 which really impressed me.

If I think about Willy's score.. there's so much great stuff! No contest for me.

On the weekend, I tried to sit down and record HOC music that I enjoyed.. actually listening to the full amount of some tracks was dissapointing. I remembered liking the theme for Li Deng's Palace.. when I actually listened to the full track, it became boring very quickly.

Probably a lot of music I never heard.. the nature of Dynamix games' 'plot branch' philosophy means you can't see/hear everything.

That was my only suggestion as well...too many sound effects

In terms of this.. anyone who's played Willy Beamish, especially with a  MT-32, will get a lot of good memories back by hearing the sound effects. I tried to make them 'plot specific'- so when you hear a sound effect, it's something vital happening or at least something the gamer does to progress forward. Sound effects are another great part of Dynamix games in my opinion.. HOC did this very well also. The train whistle.. brilliant.

Percussion in Willy is strange (HOC obviously as well). I wonder if XG's alternative sets can handle it?

- Alistair

[Tom]

I think HOC's soundtrack was vastly inferior. Heart of China is a 'soundtarck' soundtrack. Nice while you're visiting the places.. but very few lasting themes; that is, themes which you remember and say "Oh! I really liked that piece where Lucky did this.."
I can think of less than 10 pieces that stick with me from the game.. less than 5 which really impressed me.

If I think about Willy's score.. there's so much great stuff! No contest for me.

Musically, HOC's soundtrack is much more mature.  A "soundtrack" should bring you into the game and set the atmosphere, which HOC does extremely well.  I feel, for the most part, WB's soundtrack is pretty childish -- but on purpose.  I think the musicians wanted to appeal to the young, and they did that pretty well.  The WB soundtrack is pretty simplistic in comparison to the grandeur of the HOC soundtrack.  It's also a soundtrack that would probably work with any number of games; most of the music is pretty generic "pop" and bubble-gum rock.  It doesn't compare to soundtracks from Camelot, Robin Hood, Heart Of China, Colonel's Bequest or Dagger Of Amon Ra, and so forth for establishing a genuine atmosphere for the game.  It's not even in the same league.

Maybe you're referring to the style of music that you prefer, not the actual quality of it as it relates to a visual setting.

[Alistair]

Musically, HOC's soundtrack is much more mature. A "soundtrack" should bring you into the game and set the atmosphere, which HOC does extremely well. I feel, for the most part, WB's soundtrack is pretty childish -- but on purpose. I think the musicians wanted to appeal to the young, and they did that pretty well. The WB soundtrack is pretty simplistic in comparison to the grandeur of the HOC soundtrack. It's also a soundtrack that would probably work with any number of games; most of the music is pretty generic "pop" and bubble-gum rock. It doesn't compare to soundtracks from Camelot, Robin Hood, Heart Of China, Colonel's Bequest or Dagger Of Amon Ra, and so forth for establishing a genuine atmosphere for the game. It's not even in the same league.

Maybe you're referring to the style of music that you prefer, not the actual quality of it as it relates to a visual setting.

Heart of China is sort of a musical trick for the ears. If you actually go back through the game and listen to the tracks in full, there's very little *good* music. I mean, don't get me wrong! It's an epic of a game, and an epic soundtrack. Some pieces I dearly love; British Officers' Pub, Finale, Orient Express (various), Hong Kong.. etc. But, there's a lot of very ordinary pieces in the game. I'd say more so than Willy.
EDIT: To be more precise, a lot of very good pieces which are very short. Like Lomax's Theme at the start, for example.

Yes, Willy is not a very musically mature soundtrack, which is why I don't like it all that much (compared to say KQ5/6/7, QFG anything, LSL, SQ 4/5/6, etc etc.) but certainly in terms of the one you listed, it's one of the better ones. But in terms of *atmosphere*, you're right. They win. In terms of musical quality, I'd say Willy's even better than Dagger of Amon Ra. Maybe. (Depends on which one I listened most recently to, I guess. ;P)

Now that I have my 55 back, I suppose converting Dagger of Amon Ra to GS could be a fun pursuit. A lot of GS tones used in every piece..

- Alistair

[Cloudschatze]

A "soundtrack" should bring you into the game and set the atmosphere...

This epitomizes Quest for Glory IV for me. Individual experience may vary.

[Alistair]

Yep.. that's why QFGIV is my favourite score. But if we're going to get into a soundtrack debate for the nth time, might as well start a new thread

- Alistair