A discussion on restoring EQ's music once and for all

[rikustrength]

Again, I would like some clarity on the situation (and in game if that's possible, but we'll talk about that later).

Is the current goal to find a way to accurately play the old midis in their HQ version, and record it as new easily playable mp3's? And if that is the goal, how then will our current client read them if the current files in place are all .xmi? Won't it not read a like-named file if it's extension is different?

On that note, would the SB Live! previously mentioned do the trick? Or is that something that's most likely going to only work on older computers... Just looking for an answer, I wouldn't mind shelling out a few dollars for those rad tunes.

[doacleric]

Originally Posted by rikustrength [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Again, I would like some clarity on the situation (and in game if that's possible, but we'll talk about that later).

Is the current goal to find a way to accurately play the old midis in their HQ version, and record it as new easily playable mp3's? And if that is the goal, how then will our current client read them if the current files in place are all .xmi? Won't it not read a like-named file if it's extension is different?

On that note, would the SB Live! previously mentioned do the trick? Or is that something that's most likely going to only work on older computers... Just looking for an answer, I wouldn't mind shelling out a few dollars for those rad tunes.

The current goal is to try to get an old EQ client to playback the original music so that it can be recorded and enjoyed. There is NO way that the current Titanium client will be able to playback the original music correctly, even if an AWE/Live soundcard is installed in the computer. That functionality has been long since removed by the original developers.

In addition, there is no way (to my knowledge) to make the current client playback mp3's the way it plays back the xmi files. Each xmi file doesn't store just one midi tune, but stores several tunes that are to be played back in each zone. For example, Gfaydark.xmi has several songs - one that plays in front of Felwithe, one that plays in front of Crushbone, one that plays around the Kelethin area, and another that plays by the wizard spires (to name a few).

Yes, you can create a file named gfaydark.mp3, but my guess is that it will simply play that file every time you enter that zone, throughout the entire zone. Thus, you will be limited to one song per zone, and it will play no matter where you are in the zone. I don't believe this is the effect that most people want.

In addition, there is no way to get back the "situational" songs that play, such as the boat theme that plays when you board a ship. Combat music should work fine though.

[Dac321]

Originally Posted by binibren [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There may be an easier solution. If you can find someone with old hardware and an AWE32 -- I just tossed mine about 6 months ago [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] -- you can run all of the midis through winamp and output them to mp3 files. You can then replace the sound files in Titanium. It's been a while since I've messed around with the Titanium client but I *think* it supports both mp3 and midi.

For those who were not so lucky as to have played EQ with an AWE32 here is what Kelethin sounded like with that magical sound card:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atHxsHPt7Fc

Here is Kelethin with "normal" sound card:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO4_8A9Uiwg

I honestly didn't even know it was suppose to sound that good back in '99.. I figured it was suppose to sound like it was from a 1984 Casio keyboard..

The AWE32 really brought that music to life.

[Zuranthium]

Originally Posted by Flicka [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The music that does play in some areas is just frightening. Like the Rivervale tune? I used to LOVE just sitting in RV (usually fishing) and chatting and mellowing out. Now it's some jiggy demon spawned beat that is kinda scary after a few minutes, LOL. I don't know how or why it's different, but it is!

In Rivervale I think the problem is that both of the city themes play at the same time and so it becomes an awkward mash-up. I used to love the music there as well.

[Chuggun]

I'm glad I found this thread! I didn't have an AWE32 card back in the day and didn't realize what I was missing. I'm one of those that can hear 1 sec of EQ music and tell you exactly where it kicked in [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] I'd love to hear the music in all its glory again!

[PearlJammzz]

That awe32 version rocks! Someone needs to go through, and convert all the midi's to mp3's that sound like that. Muhc more...vibrant, and alive. Not as dull as the music now.

titanium only supports mp3's I thought?

[Dawgrin]

Wow I never knew what I was missing...I would LOVE to hear all the EQ music in this format...does anyone happen to have all the other music files likewise converted to MP3s?

[PearlJammzz]

My understanding is you need that special midi card (or at least supported-style card?) to be able to read the midi files like that. If you have one of those you can then convert the songs into mp3's w/ use of a program (record the output maybe is a worse-case scenario?). From there we can just download MP3 pack, and then be able to swap out the mp3 files that are currently in our directory.

[grazulis]

I've been plugging away at this problem and here's an update.

This thread:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/po...opic_id=115730

reveals that someone had contact with the composer of EQ's music. At the bottom of the thread, somebody has reposted an MP3 archive which was presumably acquired straight from the composer. Inside the archive are renditions of the music which are about as good as I have ever heard.

It has been suggested that one can replace EQ's .XMI (midi) files with like-named MP3s. I'm not so certain of this. The other thing revealed in the above thread - which I determined for myself prior to stumbling upon that discussion - is that many (most?) of EQ's music is literally hidden away. For example, GL.XMI is EQ's battle music. If you play this file with Winamp, you'll hear the very battle music which Project 1999 plays whenever one enters combat. However, if you skip ahead 1/3rd into the tune (and again at 2/3rds), you will also hear the other two battle themes which Project 1999 does not play. These used to play randomly when entering combat. And there are a lot of examples of this... many tunes stored in a single .XMI file. Even the opening EQ theme itself is hidden halfway into FREPORTN.XMI.

For anyone who ever wanted the entire soundtrack in a reasonably accessible format, the above thread also includes a .MID pack which was created by isolating each of the parts hidden in the .XMI files and creating separate .MID files out of them. All one then needs is a midi player which does a better job than the built-in soundbank utilized by Windows.

But back to the issue of getting this great music to actually play in EQ.

This thread:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/po...opic_id=146016

makes apparent something which I never personally found out, as I quit EQ for good shortly after Luclin's introduction. Evidently, when the Planes of Power got released, EQ's music was changed for good. Many MP3s were introduced, and we have clear-cut file names like EQTHEME.MP3 and FREEPORT.MP3. I happen to have discovered the complete filelist of mp3s and looked it over. As it happens, there are far fewer individual tunes than what was made available via the .XMI system with its multiple tunes per file, and this may help explain anomalies such as the no-longer-random battle music. Would Everquest Titanium play these MP3s if they were present? Who knows.

I may someday decide to scratch an itch and get my old Velious installed so I can shanghai the eqgame.exe and use it to replace Titanium's eqgame.exe. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to expect this not to work, but just imagine if it would. No more "ebon crystals" in your inventory. Battle music would be properly random. Missing tunes would be back (just listen to those MP3s in the first linked thread)!

[Crover_CT99]

Originally Posted by grazulis [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've been plugging away at this problem and here's an update.

This thread:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/po...opic_id=115730

reveals that someone had contact with the composer of EQ's music. At the bottom of the thread, somebody has reposted an MP3 archive which was presumably acquired straight from the composer. Inside the archive are renditions of the music which are about as good as I have ever heard.

It has been suggested that one can replace EQ's .XMI (midi) files with like-named MP3s. I'm not so certain of this. The other thing revealed in the above thread - which I determined for myself prior to stumbling upon that discussion - is that many (most?) of EQ's music is literally hidden away. For example, GL.XMI is EQ's battle music. If you play this file with Winamp, you'll hear the very battle music which Project 1999 plays whenever one enters combat. However, if you skip ahead 1/3rd into the tune (and again at 2/3rds), you will also hear the other two battle themes which Project 1999 does not play. These used to play randomly when entering combat. And there are a lot of examples of this... many tunes stored in a single .XMI file. Even the opening EQ theme itself is hidden halfway into FREPORTN.XMI.

For anyone who ever wanted the entire soundtrack in a reasonably accessible format, the above thread also includes a .MID pack which was created by isolating each of the parts hidden in the .XMI files and creating separate .MID files out of them. All one then needs is a midi player which does a better job than the built-in soundbank utilized by Windows.

But back to the issue of getting this great music to actually play in EQ.

This thread:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/po...opic_id=146016

makes apparent something which I never personally found out, as I quit EQ for good shortly after Luclin's introduction. Evidently, when the Planes of Power got released, EQ's music was changed for good. Many MP3s were introduced, and we have clear-cut file names like EQTHEME.MP3 and FREEPORT.MP3. I happen to have discovered the complete filelist of mp3s and looked it over. As it happens, there are far fewer individual tunes than what was made available via the .XMI system with its multiple tunes per file, and this may help explain anomalies such as the no-longer-random battle music. Would Everquest Titanium play these MP3s if they were present? Who knows.

I may someday decide to scratch an itch and get my old Velious installed so I can shanghai the eqgame.exe and use it to replace Titanium's eqgame.exe. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to expect this not to work, but just imagine if it would. No more "ebon crystals" in your inventory. Battle music would be properly random. Missing tunes would be back (just listen to those MP3s in the first linked thread)!

I'm glad you posted this link. I had found it a year or so ago and rejoiced at having a decent set of the original tunes.

I posted about this on the bug section awhile back, but it garnered no interest from the developers.

Anyway, to the OP, if you read the entirety of that post you linked, I believe someone posts a "remake" of either the Qeynos or FP bard guild music which is worth a listen.