Creative Labs X-Fi + SoundFont + W7 64bit + DOSBox + General Midi Games

[Mau1wurf1977]

Firstly I would like to thanks a few people for pointing me into the right direction!

rfnagel from VOGONS for his excellent information about SoundFonts in general and specifically how the work on Creative Labs cards.

retro games 100 from VOGONS for doing some recordings on his pimped out 28MB AWE64 GOLD which was an eye / ear opener and showed me just how good these SoundFonts can sound!

erwin, HunterZ and swaaye from VOGONS for their general contribution regarding Retro soundcards.

If I forgot anyone else I apologize in advance...

Okidoki so firstly what is this thread / post about:

rfnagel and RG100 have already provided us with excellent information and recordings regarding SoundFonts for Creative Labs AWE64 GOLD and Live!: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=26834

I would like to expand on this and provide some information and recordings with Creative Labs X-FI cards. The card I am using is a PCI X-Fi Xtreme Audio (thanks to mootant for hooking me up).

My hardware setup:

- Asus AM3 mainboard
- Phenom II Quadcore
- 4GB DDR3
- X-FI Xtreme Music
- Windows 7 Pro 64bit
- D-Fend 1.0.3

Card:

Creative Labs PCI Xtreme Audio



Drivers:

All the drivers are available from the Creative wesbite. I did not install any software from installation CDs (I don't have any). I installed:

- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series driver 2.18.0015
- Creative SoundFont Bank Manager 3.21.02
- Creative Console Launcher 2.61.09

And that's it!

The installation went very smooth. No errors or anything else to report.

SounFont used:

Copy LinkChoriumRevA.SF2: http://www.mediafire.com/?9hyw44c7c6jfo8d

Loading the SoundFont:

- Launch Creative SoundFont Bank Manager, press Bank, Press Load and point to LinkChoriumRevA.SF2

You will get this screen:



I have also ticked the Box "EAX: in the X-Fi driver. These applies Reverb and/or Chorus and adds life to the music. Otherwise a lot of Songs sound very dry / flat.

Configuring D-Fend reloaded to use the X-Fi card + SoundFont:

D-Fend reloaded has a nice button called "Select Midi Device from Device Manager" in the Midi section. Click on it and you will get a list for all the Midi devices on your machine. The SoundFont we loaded can be accessed through SB X-Fi Synth B. So in my case just type in "2" into the box "Additional settings" as per screenshot:



That's it!

Now just select "General Midi" in your DOSBox and enjoy the music!

My verdict:

I'm blown away by the quality of this General Midi implementation. I personally prefer it over a real Roland Sound Canvas.

My impression is that this General Midi implementation brings something new to the table. A lot of other cards and SoundFonts "just" try to get as close to a Roland Sound Canvas and often fail miserably.

The X-Fi + LinkChoriumRevA.SF2 aims for something "beyond" a Roland Sound Canvas.

Sample recordings:

This file is rather large. It includes recordings from Doom (4 levels), Doom 2, Dark Forces, Descent, Descent 2 and Duke Nukem3D.

You can download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?al4pe54f6kmzgvf

[jharris01]

Cool man. I can tell you are very excited. Try recording the comparison midi (over here) we have for this kind of stuff.

I'm blown away by the quality of this General Midi implementation. I personally prefer it over a real Roland Sound Canvas.

My impression is that this General Midi implementation brings something new to the table. A lot of other cards and SoundFonts "just" try to get as close to a Roland Sound Canvas and often fail miserably.

The X-Fi + LinkChoriumRevA.SF2 aims for something "beyond" a Roland Sound Canvas.

[Hopeapaa]

Yes, the enthusiasm shines through.

I would like to say "this is how it starts":
-first You get new rig, find new sounds and stuff
-then You need stuff to compare the new rig against to
-then You end up buing every freaking sound card there was ever produced...
...at least from the 80's and 90's 

[Mau1wurf1977]

Yea I'm very much excited!

Just to clarify I'm a Gamer, not a musician

Now for authenticity I have a ton of Roland MIDI modules. But what impressed me with this solution was that it brought something new to the table and didn't "just" to "come close" to a Roland Sound Canvas. So many wavetable and MIDI boards try that and usually end up not "coming close enough" while not offering anything new either.

I can see a lot of people owning a Live!, Audigy, Audigy 2 or X-Fi card. Surely more would have one of those than a vintage Sound Canvas. So for DOSBos this is a great solution.

I recorded that MIDI file, but it means nothing to me. For me it's all about Doom, Descent, Privateer and other General MIDI DOS games. Oh boy I couldn't believe how great the sounded...

Anyway here is the recording requested: http://www.mediafire.com/?zqkfif3q6glzrlb

Also what did you guys think about the Doom, Doom 2, Descent, Descent 2, Dark Forces and Duke Nukem 3D recordings?

EDIT:

Another recording. Raptor Shareware (1 level): http://www.mediafire.com/?beltztcx7momkul

[BlueMax]

I'm looking forward to trying out this new Chorium soundfont as well as the larger WeedsGM and see how they compare to the ones I have. 

Finding a good GM soundfont (regardless of size) is quite a chore!

[Mau1wurf1977]

I'm looking forward to trying out this new Chorium soundfont as well as the larger WeedsGM and see how they compare to the ones I have. 

Finding a good GM soundfont (regardless of size) is quite a chore!

I made some Doom recordings with the Weeds GM3 SoundFont (its much larger): http://www.mediafire.com/?ur8gyb4xfub66uz

Also sounds very good. At the moment I'm still leaning towards the Chorium. I guess a lot more game recordings are needed to make a final call.

Still both are amazing!

[BlueMax]

My favorite is still one called GeneralUser GS 1.4 - it's still only ~30MB but has better balance and better sounds overall.  It's fun to switch 'em up now and then, but for 99% of the MIDI tunes I listen to, mine has the best balance and overall instruments.

There's supposed to be one called SynergiGS that might be even better but I can't find it...

[Mau1wurf1977]

Ok here is a recording with SGM-V2.01. The file is huge. 237MB 

Sounds amazing no doubt. IMO all of these SoundFonts sound amazing. They all have subtle differences so it's really hard to pick your favorite.

Here is the recording with a bunch of games: http://www.mediafire.com/?r55f23c2ejovg2p