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

[Eshaton]

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

After a great deal of searching, I have found what seems to be a solution to the classic music problem. EQ shipped, as most of you know, with a pair of soundfonts to be used with older soundfont capable MIDI synths in older cards (AWE32/64, etc). Someone has taken these two soundfonts and combined them (they are not "complete" as they are, some instruments do not work) with a generic soundfont to produce one that sounds pretty similar to how it did in 99 (making your own soundfont using the two that shipped with EQ and, say, the base sondfont from a SB AWE64 might be a better solution). Anyway to get it to work with Windows (which is not natively compatible with soundfonts) you need a soundfont capable MIDI device. The software synth "BASSMIDI" can accomplish this.

Go here: http://bassmididrv.mudlord.info/#bas...riverdownloads
Click "Download BASSMIDI driver"
Install it.
It will put a program in your start menu called "Configure Software Synth" under "BASSMIDI Synth"
Download this soundfont (or make one): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G8WFWXUA
In the "Configure Software Synth" tool click "Add" then navigate to the soundfont and select it
Make sure that "BASSMIDI Driver" is selected under the "Advanced" tab (i.e., not "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth"

You should be set. I forgot if it required a reboot, but run EQ and see how it sounds.

This advanced tab is located where? (windows 7) So trying to make this sound better =) Thanks for all the nastalgia =)

[atomk]

Hey guys. I was sick of hearing the crap music Windows 7 spits out. After reading this thread I dug out an old Audigy card and after a bunch of tinkering I got it to work again. I installed XP on an empty partition and got the Audigy drivers and software working and downloaded a couple soundfonts. I posted a video on youtube with the results.

Let me know what ya think.

[Burrito]

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

Hey guys. I was sick of hearing the crap music Windows 7 spits out. After reading this thread I dug out an old Audigy card and after a bunch of tinkering I got it to work again. I installed XP on an empty partition and got the Audigy drivers and software working and downloaded a couple soundfonts. I posted a video on youtube with the results.

Let me know what ya think.

My god what a differance. I don't think my sound is as bad as the final windows 7 clip. I'm hoping cowjosh's solution works. Going to try it the second I get home.

Edit: Seems like just using one of the AWE64 soundfonts has everything working. Hurray!

[atomk]

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

My god what a differance. I don't think my sound is as bad as the final windows 7 clip. I'm hoping cowjosh's solution works. Going to try it the second I get home.

Edit: Seems like just using one of the AWE64 soundfonts has everything working. Hurray!

I got as far in this thread to where they were talking about hexediting files to get 7 to use a different soundfont. I messed a lot with MIDI in highschool (my god over 12 years ago) [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] and knew how much easier/better it was pre-Vista. I've bought soundcards just to get better MIDI from DOS games. Some posts I read in other forums from professional musicians I read when 7 was released regarding MIDI support made it sound like even a solution like cowjosh's wasn't possible. Its excellent Microsoft allows us to use a different software solution. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I just don't understand why Microsoft has regressed audio in Windows in such a way. Even Apple's Garageband is a MIDI sequencer as much as it is a recording audio tracker. I'm going to through my Soundblaster 16 in next and see what happens. Even though I know the music is going to be flat (the Audigy did indeed do chorus and reverb like someone else was talking about above about the AWE cards) I wouldn't be surprised if its better than Microsoft's wavetable.

[Zliz]

http://www.project1999.org/forums/sh...ad.php?t=81207

This solution works for me. Enjoying kickass music in EQ (Live, but should make no difference) right now at the Qeynos docks.