Recording MIDI from games

[seskanda]

I was reading the article on this website about recording midis from games, and one way it mentioned was to use a "loopback" driver. The explanation was only a few sentences, and I didn't understand it well. Just what is a 'loopback' driver? I've installed Hubi's Loopback device 2.5, but I'am having trouble figuring out how it works, especially with DOS games. The readme file is very confusing, some help would be really great, thanks!

[Kaminari]

A loopback driver emulates a MIDI cable; it's like you have one computer that plays MIDI messages and sends them to another computer for recording, except that with a virtual cable your computer is the sender and the receiver. In practice, it means that instead of setting your game to use a specific synth, you're setting it to use the virtual cable (which appears as a standard MIDI port) -- while, in the background, you've launched your favorite sequencer and set it to receive MIDI messages from your virtual cable.

I personally use the stable and easy to use Maple virtual MIDI cable from Marble Sound (site is reworked right now). That said, virtual cables are very convenient for recording SysEx messages, but they're not that good for recording game music in real time. It requires a lot of system resources and, even with a monster machine, you'll get occasional audio drops when recording from ie. DOSBox.

[robertmo]

Pause Key has been added to dosbox

you can get the latest dosbox cvs from here:
http://ykhwong.x-y.net/page.htm

you just have to press ctrl-F1 and make pause key do nothing (so that it won't pause whole dosbox, but will work the way it should work on a real computer)

I have tried it with Indiana Jones: The Fate of Atlantis and it works - game stopps but the music plays. I wonder whether/how it works with sierra games.

[Kaminari]

That sounds promising, but it doesn't seem to work in any game I tried. Even after unbinding the Pause function from the Pause key, the latter still freezes the entire emulation (MIDI included, all it does is suspending the notes).

[robertmo]

have you tried Indiana Jones: The Fate of Atlantis ?

[seskanda]

In practice, it means that instead of setting your game to use a specific synth, you're setting it to use the virtual cable (which appears as a standard MIDI port) -- while, in the background, you've launched your favorite sequencer and set it to receive MIDI messages from your virtual cable.

Ok, so the virtual cable is supposed to appear "as a standard MIDI port" in the DOS game's setup? There are just two options to chose from in the setup: Music and SFX. The ONLY thing i can see which is similar to that is 'Roland LAPC-1/MT-32' in the the music section, but that's NOT a MIDI port, right? Using Hubi's loopback cable, under Cakewalk, do i select 'LB1' for input, and 'LB1' for output to receive the MIDI messages?

BTW, that website for Maple virtual MIDI cable is down and i can't find someplace to download it, would you mind posting another link to it?

[Zemus]

The loopback cable's for Windows, not DOS. If you want to use it with DOS-games, you need to use DOSBox which will forward the MIDI from the game to the MIDI output of your choosing in Windows. In the DOS-game, you choose one of the MIDI devices listed in its setup program, like MT-32, General MIDI and so on.

By default DOSBox should output the game's MIDI to the MIDI music playback device you've chosen in Sounds and Audio Devices in the Control Panel. Set that one to one of the loopback cable's ports and then set Cakewalk to receive MIDI on that port (MIDI input).
Word of advice, don't set Cakewalk to transmit on the same port AND set it to echo what it receives. If you do that, you'll end up with a MIDI feedback that might crash your computer.

[Kaminari]

have you tried Indiana Jones: The Fate of Atlantis ?

Yes. It doesn't work either. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

[seskanda]

By default DOSBox should output the game's MIDI to the MIDI music playback device you've chosen in Sounds and Audio Devices in the Control Panel. Set that one to one of the loopback cable's ports and then set Cakewalk to receive MIDI on that port (MIDI input).
Word of advice, don't set Cakewalk to transmit on the same port AND set it to echo what it receives. If you do that, you'll end up with a MIDI feedback that might crash your computer.

Well, I have Win98 here, so by "Sounds and Audio Devices in Control Panel" you mean in 'Control Panel'-->'Multimedia'-->'MIDI' set the 'MIDI Output' tab to the loopback port, which is LB1 in my case. Thats what I did. Then, I set Cakewalk's input to LB1; what should i choose for output? For output, i selected LB1, as well. Next, I opened DOSBox 0.62 (its the MT-32 version). Now, i ran the game, and pressed CTRL+ALT+F8 so DOSBox could record/send the MIDI messages, but it did NOT work! The first thing i noticed was there wasn't ANY sound whatsoever that i could hear; is this normal?

I mean Cakewalk was receiving NOTHING, and all DOSBox showed was "Preparing for raw midi capture, will start with first data." I really knew that nothing was going on after i stopped it by pressing CTRL+ALT+F8 again where DOSBox dryly displayed: "Stopping raw midi saving" I checked ALL 16 MIDI channels, the Event list for each, but still found absolutely ZILCH!! I wonder if i'm missing anything? HOW is Cakewalk supposed to receive the MIDI data, anyways?

[Zemus]

The MT-32 version will emulate the MT-32 instead of transmitting the MIDI data, thus Cakewalk doesn't receive crap.
I believe the MIDI capture function saves the MIDI data to some file somewhere on your HD.

Then, I set Cakewalk's input to LB1; what should i choose for output? For output, i selected LB1, as well.

As I said, if you do that AND Cakewalk's set to echo whatever it receives on input, you'll create a feedback that may crash your computer.

[Alistair]

Hey Zemus,

Slightly offtopic, but how to you set Cakewalk to echo what it receives on input? I'm curious, I might have done it by accident sometimes, which might explain problems I once had with recording MIDI.

- Alistair

[Zemus]

Click Project in the Options drop-down menu. Under the tab MIDI Input you can set Echo Mode to None, Manual or Auto. If you click the Help-button, you'll get a more detailed description of each option.
I use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 by the way, so it might be different if you use another version.

[Alistair]

I use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 as well, so not a problem. Love that program for MIDI recording (incidentally, hate it for MIDI editing).

I'll have to check it out, thanks for the advice.

- Alistair

[seskanda]

The MT-32 version will emulate the MT-32 instead of transmitting the MIDI data, thus Cakewalk doesn't receive crap.
I believe the MIDI capture function saves the MIDI data to some file somewhere on your HD.

Good suggestion, but i just tried the regular 0.62 + 0.63 versions of DOSBox and i still have had NO success. The problem is basically the same as before, that is, simply NOTHING happens! The only difference i could notice this time was with the regular versions of DOSBox there IS sound, UNlike with the MT-32 edition. Of course, i'm always eager to learn where i've erred.

BTW, i believe DOSBox is supposed to save the MIDI data in a folder called /capture, which is located in the DOSBox-0.6x folder. Naturally, i looked there, but it was EMPTY. I also searched my whole HD for .mid and again i found NADA.  

As I said, if you do that AND Cakewalk's set to echo whatever it receives on input, you'll create a feedback that may crash your computer.

I was gonna ask you what you mean by 'echo' but it seems Alistair beat me to it.   Anyways, thanks for the reply, as I too have Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, and now that I know HOW to 'echo' MIDI input; it'd be great to figure out WHAT it does.

[Zemus]

If you use D-Fend for launching games in DOSBox, the captured MIDI data will be saved in D-Fend's capture folder, not DOSBox's. That is if you use CTRL-ALT-F8 to capture MIDI. If you've searched your whole HD, it's probably something else though....