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

[binibren]

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

[FatMagic]

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

Holy. Crap. What a difference! I want those tunes! How nice sounding!

And grazulis - keep us up to date on your work. Can't wait to see what you can create. I wish I could help but I have zero skill in working with sound!

[Adramelk]

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

It's worth noting that while I agree with everything in this thread and would LOVE to hear the old epic EQ music the way it was originally intended, that I'm unsure these are actually the same midi file -- if you'll notice, at the very least they are in different keys (listen carefully!).

(If they are, and the different midi interpretation also changes the key, my apologies. Still, GOD does the first one ever sound wonderful.)

[Simplistik]

I'm not too keen on what your looking for but I have an old P2 system that has an old Sound blaster in it ,model ct4170 isa slot system still works too!
Could this be used to convert over the old midi's into mp3's?

[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.