Update: 14Nov04

[Tom]

General MIDI



THE COLONEL'S BEQUEST soundtrack is now available for General MIDI, too.  Designed for optimal playback on Roland GM devices.

[Marten]

Great work, Tom

[Alistair]

Excellent. 2 LB1 soundtracks to listen to..

- Alistair

EDIT: By the way, the image text still says 'Coming soon', by the way, Tom Just remembered.

[Tom]

Glad you like it.   Except for a few sound effects, General MIDI handles this score just fine.  There were so many keyboard tracks that work much better on the Sound Canvas rather than the MT-32.  I was thinking of an XG translation, but it seems kind of pointless; my SW60XG card seems to handle the GM version quite well.

[Alistair]

So many? Should be about half the score using Honkytonk, true.. but another half is just mood music without piano. Various Victola themes don't have piano as well.

Can't wait to hear both of these, but especially the GM version.. because conversions always give you another way of looking at the score. QuestStudios is really home to some awesome conversions..
SC-55 is nice for jazz tracks anyway
Would love to hear this score in ED, too..

How did instruments like the 'Pipe Org 1' translate to the SC-55? Obviously I take it you used 'Church Org. 1', but did you have to do anything to the track or did it convert fine? That instrument seems to convert weirdly sometimes is all. You did some great things with the instrument in KQ1VGA (speaking of which, would love you to release more KQ1 tracks, and better quality versions of some already uploaded, there's definite issues with some of 'em).

That'll do for now.. I'll post more when I've actually had a listen!

- Alistair

[Tom]

How did instruments like the 'Pipe Org 1' translate to the SC-55? Obviously I take it you used 'Church Org. 1', but did you have to do anything to the track

Of course....

As you know, MT-32 timbres don't typically just simply convert to General MIDI without sometimes some major editing.  Velocity Sensitivity between the MT-32 and Sound Canvas are drastically different.  And many of the instruments, especially custom MT-32 timbres, have totally different play ranges and have to be adjusted accordingly.  

I'm guessing Ken Allen isn't into Organs all that much.  Organs are not velocity sensitive, yet throughout his organ tracks, the velocities are all over the map.  On the MT-32, it isn't all that noticeable, but on the SC, it's very noticeable...but is also easy to correct for.  Though I haven't noticed this as much in other Sierra organ tracks by other musicians.

[HondaSiR]

I'm listening to the GM track now. Great work on the conversion, Tom. LB1 sounds terrific on the Sound Canvas, specially the piano pieces...they never sounded so good and alive before! Kinda makes me wish that the Sound Canvas was already in existence when this game was shipped.  

[Tom]

I find that the SC conversions sometimes have a lot nicer sound output than the MT-32 versions because keyboard sounds are so much nicer on the SC.  And the overall output of the SC is "cleaner, crisper" than the MT-32.  But you take the good with the bad; many sounds just don't convert from the MT-32 to SC, so one does the best they can.  The Colonel's Bequest soundtrack seems like a natural, though, for General MIDI.  I agree -- I wish Ken Allen would have had the SC back then so he could have composed the soundtrack for it, too.

[Alistair]

Aw, I dunno.. tracks like 'Spying' are way better on the MT-32. And Allen's SC-55 scores were never anything flash.

Interesting that you mention organs.. he did do weird things with them, but Allen used organs in almost every Sierra soundtrack he worked on! Sorcerian, SQ4, KQ1SCI, CB to name a few..

- Alistair

[Caliburn]

Interesting that you mention organs.. he did do weird things with them, but Allen used organs in almost every Sierra soundtrack he worked on! Sorcerian, SQ4, KQ1SCI, CB to name a few..

Yep, that's true, but I believe what Tom meant when he said, "I'm guessing Ken Allen isn't into Organs all that much," was not that Allen wasn't into using organ patches in his compositions, but rather that he apparently can't have had much experience with real organs (bonafide instruments and not just sound patches) or else he would have known that the keys of an organ are not velocity sensitive like, say, those of a piano.  They just register on and off without any gradation of timbre and dynamic in reaction to the force applied to the key.

Of course, it's also possible that Allen was aware of the fact that real organs aren't velocity sensitive, and simply didn't bother adjusting all the velocity values of his MIDIs to a single value after performing the piece on a velocity sensitive MIDI keyboard or digital piano.

Anyway, it's neat music and I'll have fun comparing the GM conversion to the MT-32 original.  Thanks, Tom, for your efforts, as always.

-Luke

[Alistair]

Yep, that's true, but I believe what Tom meant when he said, "I'm guessing Ken Allen isn't into Organs all that much," etc..

I know that's what Tom meant, I like the sound of my own voice okay???

Seriously, well said, Luke.

Though I still contend with 'If Allen had no organ experience or interest, one would assume he would refrain from using them in his composing'.

- Alistair