Music - 90s sound

StillInThe90s · Sat 29/01/2011 19:08:23

I am looking for a way to make my music sound like the good old 90s adventure games did (Monkey Island, L.o.Kyrandia, Simon the sorcerer etc.) . I.e. not really 80s 8-bit but certainly not like the crappy saxophone and electric guitar sounds that comes with todays sequencer programs.
Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
Is there a way to achieve this?
This is really a white spot on my map.

Moderators: Yes, I have searched the forums. And no, I did not see this as an ags- technical issue.

Thanks.

CaptainD · Sat 29/01/2011 19:27:53

I don't know if there are any good soundtracker programs around these days - they might help you get the sound you're after.

Scavenger · Sat 29/01/2011 19:31:45

There were several different soundcards in that era.

Are we talking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8raL-lWjOs&feature=related
Adlib?

or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3dB0qEcG20
MT-32?

Those are the two quintessentially retro sounds I remember when I play 90s games. There were others, but they're either wavetable or beepers.

StillInThe90s · Sat 29/01/2011 20:27:17

Thanks guys.
I believe something like the adlib is what I'm looking for. But any old sb that sounds like that, would do just fine really.
Now, my next question is: How do I get hold of - and use these sounds?

Wyz · Sun 30/01/2011 00:08:17

Did I hear someone say Adlib?

Well, I'm a big fan of the adlib (OPL2/3) sound and although I prefer sounds from the actual chip there exist emulators that come really close. DOSBox actually comes with the best emulator, so when you play these old games, it sound really well. Making songs for it is a different story, you could try to fake the sound with your modern sequencer program, but that won't be easy to nail. Or you could use an oldschool tracker like Adlib Tracker II and run it in dosbox. If you aren't familiar with trackers it can be quite some time before you get the hang of it but if you really want to go for it it could be worth your time.

Stupot · Mon 31/01/2011 06:31:28

Quote from: Scavenger on Sat 29/01/2011 19:31:45
There were several different soundcards in that era.

Are we talking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8raL-lWjOs&feature=related
Adlib?

or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3dB0qEcG20
MT-32?

Those are the two quintessentially retro sounds I remember when I play 90s games. There were others, but they're either wavetable or beepers.

Dammit, I haven't been able to get the Monkey Island theme out of my head since I read this thread yesterday and spent an hour watching people play different versions of it on various instruments. And this morning I went to the cafeteria of my uni to try and teach myself how to play it (just the basic melody, since I can't read sheet music)... This isn't going to end any time soon $:-\$

arj0n · Mon 31/01/2011 08:16:42

Quote from: Wyz on Sun 30/01/2011 00:08:17
...Or you could use an oldschool tracker like Adlib Tracker II and run it in dosbox.

Or you could use Schism Tracker. No dosbox needed, just runs on Win.

Chicky · Mon 31/01/2011 13:02:55

Quote from: Stupot on Mon 31/01/2011 06:31:28
Quote from: Scavenger on Sat 29/01/2011 19:31:45
There were several different soundcards in that era.

Are we talking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8raL-lWjOs&feature=related
Adlib?

or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3dB0qEcG20
MT-32?

Those are the two quintessentially retro sounds I remember when I play 90s games. There were others, but they're either wavetable or beepers.

Dammit, I haven't been able to get the Monkey Island theme out of my head since I read this thread yesterday and spent an hour watching people play different versions of it on various instruments. And this morning I went to the cafeteria of my uni to try and teach myself how to play it (just the basic melody, since I can't read sheet music)... This isn't going to end any time soon $:-\$

It's dead easy on a guitar! You should be able to learn it by ear...

StillInThe90s · Mon 31/01/2011 14:08:17

Sadly, I am not familiar with trackers at all. But I must say they look like the most user un-friendly stuff I have seen since C64. Would it be posssible to run midi files through such a program and use it as a kind of software effect/filter, instead of learning how to scrips songs (I will never learn that).

kaputtnik · Mon 31/01/2011 15:20:36

Yes, some trackers actually allow you to import midi files, but the results vary greatly. You might want to try OpenMPT for Windows, it handles midi import quite well and is very user friendly (even though it might take you half an hour to get into the interface if you are used to working with piano roll style sequencers).

StillInThe90s · Mon 31/01/2011 16:44:55

Thanks. I'll give openMPT a go and see how it turns out.
Does that program have a adlib-like sounds or emulation btw?

Trapezoid · Tue 01/02/2011 08:36:15

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/228.html

Here's a little VST plugin called VOPM that emulates Adlib-style synthesis rather well. You can use it in the sequencing software of your choice, as long as it supports VST. Either mess with the sliders to create your own sounds (difficult) or load patches from the GM bank included with it (easy). You'll need to load a new instance of it for each new instrument, but you can then export your work as an MP3 or OGG and nobody will know the difference.

Quick example ditty I made with it: http://neilcic.com/vopme.mp3

One warning, I'm not sure how stable the plugin is. I've had a few BSODs while using it.

Babar · Tue 01/02/2011 09:54:24

T....T....T...Trapezoid?! :O

HELLO!

* Babar grabs hold of Trap and doesn't let go until he's made at least 3 games

Absentia · Tue 01/02/2011 10:56:05

There's a great little (or rather, pretty damn big) soundfont called RegressionFM. It's designed to be able to play back MIDI files from old DOS games, and as a result the default names of the instruments aren't always massively helpful as they presumably weren't designed with a musician in mind, but having said that, it's still entirely usable as a bank of sounds for music-making if you use a Soundfont player VSTi such as SFZ.

RegressionFM can be found here: http://www.fileplanet.com/218035/210000/fileinfo/RegressionFM-1.5c-Soundfont

SFZ can be found here: http://web.archive.org/web/20061206040259/http://www.rgcaudio.com/downloads/freeware/

Important: sfz197.exe is the installer for the latest version, however if you have a multi-threaded CPU and you're getting horrible noises when you try to run multiple instances of the plugin, then in sfz.zip there's a multi-thread version of the plugin so you can just go and replace the .dll file and it should be no problem.

If you want to hear how some of it sounds, I messed around a while ago and made a couple of very sketchy bits of music with it.
http://www.box.net/shared/az91ko9v0o

Hope this helps!

Trapezoid · Tue 01/02/2011 12:24:49

Quote from: Babar on Tue 01/02/2011 09:54:24
T....T....T...Trapezoid?! :O

HELLO!

* Babar grabs hold of Trap and doesn't let go until he's made at least 3 games

Hi! I don't know if I'll make any games for real, but the overpowering siren call of FM synth beckoned me.

On topic: One thing I forgot to mention about VOPM, is that someone ripped a TON of instruments from Sega Genesis soundtracks (which also used FM synthesis) into this collection:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ynnygzowyzw You can sift through them pretty much endlessly.

Another neat little option is this: http://www.shikadi.net/keenwiki/IMF_Creator

It takes a midi input and plays it with FM instruments. You can also create custom instruments OR load them from IMF files, which were used in old Apogee games. You can download a ton of theme here:
http://www.exotica.org.uk/mediawiki/index.php?title=Special:Modland&md=qsearch&qs=imf

(And if you want to actually listen to these IMF files rather than just steal instrument sounds from them, download Winamp and AdPlug.)

Damien · Tue 01/02/2011 13:48:41

QuoteOPL-3 FM 128M.sf2 - Zandro Reveille of the of the ZSF project sampled the GM instruments from his SB16 ISA perfectly. I can barely tell the difference from the real hardware. This is the soundfont I was looking for when I started the research for this page. - 57Mb compressed

Download link
It is a soundfont bank comressed in .sfpack so you'll need to use SFpack to decompress it back to .sf2.

After that you can use a soundfont player within your DAW to play these instruments.

Original page - you'll find more .sf2's ripped from vintage audio equipment, I recommend checking out the MT-32 soundbanks.

If you want to use it to play midi files inside foobar, get the MIDI synthesizer host plugin, or use in_aSyFon in Winamp (did not test that one).

StillInThe90s · Tue 01/02/2011 21:37:45

Again, thanks a lot for all your great links and help and stuff.
These programs seem a lot more approachable than those hardcore-trackers.
Lovely little tune btw, Trape.

Dualnames · Tue 01/02/2011 21:45:59

Quote from: Babar on Tue 01/02/2011 09:54:24
T....T....T...Trapezoid?! :O

HELLO!

* Babar grabs hold of Trap and doesn't let go until he's made at least 3 games

TRAPEZOID!!!!

StillInThe90s · Thu 10/02/2011 20:38:34

Couple of quesions again...
I got VOPM working in FL studio and were able to import opm-files from the genesis bundle. There is a bunch of fxb-files included in the VOPM-installation. How do I import/use them?
Does anyone know of a place to get opm instruments? I'm having a hard time finding anything useful in the genesis game collection.

About IMF creator. Am I supposed to import imf-files into this program? How? And how do I use the files coming out of it?

Sorry for nagging about this. I have tried to figure it out on my own...

Trapezoid · Sat 12/02/2011 07:39:01

.FXB is the standard VST bank preset file. I don't use FL Studio, but maybe this post would help? http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=251260

GM.fxb is a full library of FM versions of standard MIDI instruments. You can also find .fxb files, which are just individual instruments rather than collections. Try googling for things like VOPM patches, VOPM presets, VOPM banks, etc.

StillInThe90s · Sat 12/02/2011 23:07:50

Hat off to you, Trapezoid.
I'm still in need of help with the other issues, though.