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Ariemos
02-11-2016, 05:56 PM
Hi,

Long time lurker...

Do you like the EQ music, but find the MIDIs horribly dated? Would you like to hear the music played through a 'modern' instrument?

For my own amusement I (kind of...) did that. I used the original MIDIs to play the music through the 'virtual' organ of Hereford Cathedral, England, UK.

Took me about a week to do all the required work (see YouTube video description).

It turned out better than I thought, so decided I'd share it.
You might be surprised at how well the organ can imitate the different instruments and how it pulls off the soundtrack.

Hour long video link:

https://youtu.be/rvTeOFDGr7A


Enjoy!



Track list below:

Wizard Spires
EverQuest Theme
'Academy'
Ak'anon
Arena
Character Select
Character Select (Full Organ version)
Felwithe
Freeport Bard Guild
Freeport Docks
Freeport North
Freeport - Temple of Marr
Freeport West
'Haven'
'Home'
'Inn'
Kelethin
Kerra Isle
'Mystery'
Neriak
Neriak - Lodge of the Dead
Neriak - Lodge of the Dead (Full Organ version)
North Karana Bridge
'Plane of Sky'
'Pomp'
Qeynos - Bard Guild
Qeynos - Guard Tower
Qeynos - Temple of Life
Qeynos Theme
Rivervale
Shop 1
Shop 2
Shop 3
Shop 4
Toxxuila Bridge
Training
'Underwater'
Vendor Tune

zanderklocke
02-11-2016, 06:38 PM
This is cool.

Jazzy
02-11-2016, 06:42 PM
well played mate

dorp
02-11-2016, 06:55 PM
This is pretty fantastic, good job - it's like Castlevania EQ.

Was there a method to the MIDI channels you decided to discard? Or, just selecting what you thought was the most dominant half of the channels?

Ariemos
02-11-2016, 07:45 PM
This is pretty fantastic, good job - it's like Castlevania EQ.

Was there a method to the MIDI channels you decided to discard? Or, just selecting what you thought was the most dominant half of the channels?


Thank you!

In response: There wasn't exactly a scientific method. I did a lot of experimenting. There was potentially up to 16 MIDI channels but in most it was a bit less.

I was able to eliminate some that were duplicated, to play on left and right speakers, as there was no need to have both.

If a MIDI file had say 4 different trumpet tracks I generally only kept one or two, to allow for other instruments to play.

I had to basically eliminate all percussion tracks, drums, bells, etc, as there are no suitable stops on the organ to do it, which was a shame, but no way around it. Tracks like Qeynos theme really miss out not having the drums.
There was the odd track I slipped some in though, Arena being one. Without the drum track, this MIDI wouldn't have been worth doing, so I fudged it on the pedal and just about got away with it. For Vendor Tune I managed to use the organ Glockenspiel which was neat.

As it was only really feasible to use 5 'tracks' for the 4 keyboards and set of pedals, (playing more than one track on each organ division didn't sound good, unsurprisingly). I discarded a lot of the shorter tracks to make room for the more valuable ones which were longer.

Then it was a matter of keeping the melody and the more prominent backing tracks that would really make someone remember the original music. There is loss of detail sure, but I think from pretty much each of the tracks one can remember where it originally came from, without looking at the title.

The 'quiet' tracks with the fewest stops turned out the best in my opinion. Haven, Home, Inn and the Shop tracks and so on.
(But I think Neriak - Lodge of the Dead was made for full organ! :D)

Lightloch
02-11-2016, 07:53 PM
Excellent!

Baler
02-11-2016, 08:24 PM
Sounds awesome. I've always really enjoyed the sound of this instrument.
Thanks for sharing!!

Daywolf
02-11-2016, 09:19 PM
Yeah, that's cool. That's a lot of recording work there, good quality. I've only done one using my VST from the EQ songs. Kelethin (https://clyp.it/a1w3m04h)
I used a piano, classic guitar (sounds a bit like harp, I only have celtic and doesn't fit) and a horn I modified a bit. eh..

Sage Truthbearer
02-11-2016, 10:47 PM
Super cool. I like the Felwithe song and Freeport Bard guild song.

Bard guild: https://youtu.be/rvTeOFDGr7A?t=11m27s

Felwithe: https://youtu.be/rvTeOFDGr7A?t=10m1s

joppykid
02-11-2016, 11:15 PM
Should find a way import these into the game ha. This is amazing, should probably just sticky this GM's.

Storm
02-11-2016, 11:22 PM
Awesome! I'm going to listen to this while I play. :D

Thank you for sharing!

Diogene
02-12-2016, 03:11 AM
This is fantastic. Sounds so much better than midi files. A big thanks. Now we need to find a way to import these into the game !

Kevynne
02-12-2016, 03:17 AM
This is cool.

Nuffwin
02-12-2016, 06:01 AM
Ak'Anon sounds so majestic/epic.

Awesome, thanks for this !

Jimwise
02-12-2016, 05:00 PM
Ah these are splendid! Thanks so much for taking the time to convert them :)

Ariemos
02-12-2016, 05:02 PM
Yeah, that's cool. That's a lot of recording work there, good quality. I've only done one using my VST from the EQ songs. Kelethin (https://clyp.it/a1w3m04h)
I used a piano, classic guitar (sounds a bit like harp, I only have celtic and doesn't fit) and a horn I modified a bit. eh..

I thought it sounded pretty good, regardless! Thanks for posting it.

Ariemos
02-12-2016, 05:04 PM
Super cool. I like the Felwithe song and Freeport Bard guild song.

Bard guild: https://youtu.be/rvTeOFDGr7A?t=11m27s

Felwithe: https://youtu.be/rvTeOFDGr7A?t=10m1s

The Felwithe track was one of the last ones I did. I think I improved doing these as I went along. I really like this particular one as well.

Turned out better than I thought, considering I had to chop lots out of this track.

Ariemos
02-12-2016, 05:07 PM
Ak'Anon sounds so majestic/epic.

Awesome, thanks for this !

Glad you liked it. This one also suffered from lots of chopping! So turned out OK considering. All the percussion had to go...

Pope Hat
02-12-2016, 05:21 PM
Very cool.

Found
02-12-2016, 06:06 PM
Hah wow thats great

bomaroast
02-13-2016, 01:11 PM
Can we have some mp3 links? It's either links with high quality or a crummy youtube rip. So awesome. So very, very awesome.

Ariemos
02-13-2016, 02:04 PM
For your listening pleasure, I've additionally uploaded:

North Ro - https://youtu.be/yQ6JLyp4TEM
(Accidentally missed out recording this one, despite having done the work!)

Sea/Boat Theme - https://youtu.be/ViTM4ZD8cDs
(Technical problems meant I skipt this, but re-visited it and managed to do it).

Ariemos
02-13-2016, 02:09 PM
Can we have some mp3 links? It's either links with high quality or a crummy youtube rip. So awesome. So very, very awesome.

That can be arranged...

Give me a couple of days, as I will need to playback and record each MIDI file again individually. The program (Hauptwerk) records to .wav format so I'll need to convert them as well.

But it's a good chance for me to remove little niggles, like turning off the keyboard action noise (noticable in tracks like Kelethin).

NizmerThafen
02-13-2016, 02:34 PM
This is just fantastic. Thanks a lot for sharing this. Listening to North Ro track in a loop.

Diogene
02-13-2016, 03:39 PM
Can we have some mp3 links? It's either links with high quality or a crummy youtube rip. So awesome. So very, very awesome.

+1 can't wait for the links !

Sadre Spinegnawer
02-13-2016, 03:48 PM
It's like playing EQ while watching a Hammer Studio horror flick!

Nixtar
02-13-2016, 04:24 PM
Awesome work!