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Messages - vexatious

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1
Updated pat-set to 0.2.8.  Had problem with xgmappings but was fixed (previous version had wrong mappings).  Laughing was changed (old one is still included in case you decide to change it back).  Forward slashes changed to backslashes so it actually loads in Windows (Doh!  Still included instructions to change it to forward slashes for Linux users).  Also included an extra yamaha XG sample set to play around with if anyone wants (grew 15 mb). 

Links to lgp files re-added.

Once again these are really just various soundfont rips combined into one big pat set and I didn't record any samples.  Credit goes to the original authors who recorded the samples.  Of course, without Timidity we wouldn't have realtime midi with this quality and possiblity, so great credit goes go those authors as well.

2
Uploaded pat set with very minor update on speedy share.  The snare roll wasn't heard and that's fixed.

Previous pat-set can be fixed by editing cool_drumset0.cfg and changing program 25.  Should look like this:
Code: [Select]
#       #25 sn-roll keep=env amp=100    note=60
        25 snarerol.pat note=60 keep=env amp=200
  The cannon.mid track was affected by this (snare roll was mute).

Just remember this pat-set is meant to be used with the XG midi option in FFVII (and the custom XG.lgp with vocals).  Don't think I can batch edit all the midi tracks to remove the 1 second silence at each track start.  Final Fantasy VII XG midi also adds a second of silence at each track start. Sorry about that. 

3
Don't like posting without updating, but I noticed the link requires premium membership.  Going to finish a small update to the pat set (snare roll is broken) and version it (will also try to explain how to fix it if you already downloaded from the current huge_pats.zip).  Will re-upload it with something else. 

Haven't received any more support from Eric (one of Timidity's developers); he's probably busy.  It seems impossible to have a ride-ping and closed hand cymbal on the same program at the moment.  Haven't tried combining two wav's into a single pat but I kind of doubt that'll work.  On the plus side, only one (maybe two) midi tracks suffers from this limitation but fortunately it can be worked around by editing the midi track.

As for the delay on each track change in game, it's actually intentional on the XG midi's.  There might be a setting in Timidity++ that can avoid this, but otherwise the tracks might have to be edited to leave this delay out.  This delay might've been put in for XG specific hardware compatibility but I can't be certain about that.

Really appreciate the support (just remember, I didn't do any actual sound development or recordings; I literally took other people's free soundfonts and samples to shape this pat set.  But it is a lot of work and testing).  Think it's a bummer not having a fully developed midi synthesizer (except for this pat-set and edited midi tracks) for FFVII after all these years (there's no excuse to re-release it without a good software synthesizer for modern systems; the original release didn't have that problem); this goes for other games too.  (Why assume users will be fine with default Windows midi? Sounds like $moAuRe $).

Also couldn't find the old post in my browser cache.  I'm upset from that and hope someone can give tips on recovering stuff from old cache (Internet Explorer and Firefox in Windows).

Many thanks to template for the link to a working Timidity and steps involved.  Will try to do a new guide when I get a chance.  BTW, I still can't stop looking at that penguin getting smacked; it's like they're getting along too well.

Regards

4
Graphical / Re: [WIP] HD battle scene pack
« on: 2013-09-26 01:12:45 »
I envy your talent (and everyone else's with music and graphic remakes).  No doubt, with all these mods a remake is definitely possible.  Don't stop pursuing your passion.  Great (only the best) work!

5
Quote
umm why not just use wine and run FF7 that way.
Thanks for the tip!  Unfortunately I don't use Wine since it's a potential security risk.  Don't want the potential to run virus's, trojans or anything malicious built for Windows.  My only option is virtualization.

Regards

6
I miss my Gothic choir in the XG/XG battle theme
Open xg\gsdrums.cfg inside the huge_pats folder and make
Code: [Select]
49 gsdrum25/808crsh1    pan=8
look like
Code: [Select]
#49 gsdrum25/808crsh1    pan=8
Quote
To be honest Vex, you should have added donation info.
No kidding.  Would like a web host too.

7
This got a little out of control with no version numbers, strikes, colored text, and now dead links :-P
I don't know which version of the huge pats I have now or I would make a mirror rq.

Was thinking that myself.  Wasn't expecting pat set to be such a pain to maintain; also didn't expect to find it so addicting.  You should be fine if you downloaded huge_pat_set.zip and the fix (the old one to be avoided was huge_pats.zip. Only the name of the zips are different). New link already has the fix included (was missing lb2/Woodblock.pat).

Also, don't expect an update soon but I'm going to work on the XG specific sounds.  Think they can be smaller and sound better (the dog bark for instance).  This will be easier to update too since you'd only have to replace the xg folder inside huge_pats; you won't have to redownload the entire pat set; kinda like the fix that was needed earlier.  You could also keep the old xg folder if you decide it sounded better.  This is kinda why I don't want to use version numbers (but I'm going to nonetheless).

Let me know of any problems while you're using it.  I may not respond very fast but that's because of school.

Thanks for all your hard work. Now that it's gone I miss your colorful first post...
I screwed that up.  Deleted everything when I edited.  Hope it's on my Windows cache.

Also (yes this is another edit but have to remind myself :) ), you can use timidity to load whatever patsets and/or soundfonts you want while keeping only the XG portion of this pat_set underneath to maintain XG compatibility with everything; can also add XG compatibility with vocals for One Winged Angel too.  I'll explain later but you do have to edit the main timidity.cfg by hand (wish there was a frontend to make combining stuff this way easier for folks).

8
Releases / Re: patset taken down :)
« on: 2013-07-29 09:59:11 »
Media fire sucks.  Don't know what to say.  If you got huge_pat_set.zip along with the fix then consider yourself lucky.  Sorry about all the problems on my end.  Just make sure you use midi yoke.

Kind regards

9
Whoever uses the pat-set would probably want to open cool_bank0.cfg and find "28 merlin_gold-B0/GuitarMutes keep=loop keep=env amp=100" and replace it with "28 merlin_gold-B0/GuitarMutes keep=loop keep=env amp=175"; this'll wake up mute guitar in lb1.mid "Birth of God". (Why do I keep running into lb1.mid and lb2.mid inconsistencies?   ???)

10
For those of you who downloaded the updated huge pat set (huge_pat_set.zip) last night until now (Friday night to Saturday 4 PM pacific time); you'll notice the vocals are gone.  Download huge_pat_set_fix.zip 750kb file here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/24xe29ibne24emu/huge_pat_set_fix.zip unzip and drop it over your current huge_pats folder to have them back.

Updated demo's, xg.lgp and individual midi's.  Recommend you use either xg_vocals_lb2-splashcymbal.lgp so One Winged Angel sounds the way it's intended with XG, or xg_vocals_lb2-drums.lgp if you want it to sound how the psx intended (has drums around 2:57).

11
Link updated.  Pat set grew to 175 mb but oh well; at least it's better and maybe everything fixed.  Only thing left is tuning amps and make sure certain instruments don't screw up with loops.  It also has GS drums and GS sound FX; if you want GS compatibility for other stuff it's there (you're on your own for that though since you have to add source gssfx.cfg under source xgmap.cfg in pat set's timidity.cfg).  I'm pretty much done with this pat set now.

Removed links to the old xg lb.mid with vocals since I modified a better one.  Changed the midi to use a splash cymbal (supposed to be a closed hand cymbal) to sound better since xg mappings were already fine (tried remapping a closed hand cymbal but it screwed up other midi's expecting a ride cymbal).  51 #d2 (127 49) is a closed hand cymbal and a ride cymbal at the same time.  Either timidity has limited xg support and it's impossible to map two instruments to one program like the real hardware, or I don't know how to map the two different instruments to one program.  If you have the old xg lb2.mid with vocals it still works but you'll hear the wrong instrument (ride ping instead of closed hand cymbal).

Quote
I'm assuming its for people that enjoy the feeling that listening to MIDIs evokes, but this project takes that to the upper limits - Please correct me if I'm wrong

Pretty much and it's mostly with XG midi since that's the toughest to exploit in software and it's much more advanced compared to GM (the awe midi is great but XG midi has so much more going on: reverb, dynamic range, lots of stereo panning, sound effects, etc). 

The pat set was made to have high quality midi instruments that are a good match for games and having Final Fantasy VII support; makes Doom, dosbox and other stuff very high end and it's free as in beer (equivalent of a $3000 plus hardware module but it's better since you can make your own pat sets and tweak them; have to make sure they're free though lol).

Managed to add vocals to One Winged Angel XG midi on my own (ended up helping myself out and learning midi in the process) and it does work with the pat set (pat set works with awe midi too).  Basically this allows what would be impossible on real XG hardware; hearing the vocals and using way higher quality instruments. 

Should be better than the yamaha xg 50 software that comes bundled with FFVII (the wavetable data is 4 mb while this pat set is 175 mb; huge freakin' difference).  It really comes down to personal preference however, and this pat set does need a fast single core cpu if it's an older one (at least 3 ghz pentium 4 more or less); and that's a huge difference compared to the yamaha xg 50 software requirements.  Basically takes advantage of newer hardware and high end sound setups (some instruments go up to 48000 khz resolution).  You can see the soundfonts used in the cfg's.

Sorry for taking up so much forum space.  Was doing a lot on my own and perhaps I should keep my own logs somewhere; keeping my own records is something I'm not familiar with (feels like I need to become a detective or something).

12
Link to pat set was taken down earlier. Found problems with the xg mappings which is what caused lb2.mid to sound wrong. Closed hand cymbal was mapped to a ride ping; a ride ping does not sound like a closed hand cymbal and don't know how many other instruments have this type of problem. Wish whoever originally did the xg mappings was more careful about this stuff.  Mapped the closed hand cymbal to a splash cymbal which sounds much more appropriate. Only did that since I can't locate any closed hand cymbal samples or sound fonts; general midi doesn't normally have that instrument.  Need to double check the .mappings for other inconsistencies.

 Will release update soon as a lot of stuff is fixed. Sound effects are all added for instance (know many would hate me for forgetting that); you can hear the dog in Cosmo canyon music and all the other stuff that I miss handled (thunder in over world theme after comet is visible, bubbles in mako reactor music, and so many other sound effects).  Also fixes annoying tone heard during intro music when Cloud jumps off train (supposed to be a starship not something else).

Added way better brass, church organ and grand piano too (sounds just like the real thing). Only thing I don't like is the larger pat set size but sometimes that's unavoidable when improving quality.

There's also a glitch with timidity and the brush slap. When you play the shinra theme it sounds like crap, but if you fast forward briefly and let it continue it sounds really nice. Don't know if this happens on Windows but it really makes the sound bad. Also changed the claps to make it sound better (PlayStation version sounds like a violent slap instead of hand claps so I still think the claps could be better).

Also added loop control to all instruments in case they have loops. This makes a battle theme instrument behave appropriately and is like the playstation now; think Template referred to this as some kind of gothic theme which is actually in the PlayStation too (just a lot more quiet and barely audible; turned the pat set instrument down so it's more like that but it's still easier to hear).

Fixed string volumes so they don't have an out of tune sound.

Will upload updated pat set as soon as I get a chance.

As a note. The xg midi's have become more interesting. Some songs are arranged differently vs the PlayStation and I'm wondering if they represent what the original authors intended or if it's a mistake. The battle theme sounds like it's got more instruments vs the PlayStation. Also, Lb2.mid continues using closed hand cymbals in a part where the PlayStation and awe version change to a drum. I temporarily edited the xg midi to sound like the awe and PlayStation but this isn't what I intend as normal since I want to leave the xg tracks intact (except the vocals of course) so that was only for experimenting (people may prefer a more playstation like song however).

Fixed volume in xg lb2.mid vocals during second half (they got louder due to my lowsiness). Will upload the updated xg.lgp and lb2.mid when I get a chance.

Wish timidity was easier to handle for Windows users but as long as there's a pat set that doesn't suck (I take this back actually since it is a bunch of work), that's what I'll be happy with.

13
Yeah! Make a tutorial (it'd help me).  But make sure timidity settings are right (like in the first post).

Did find some better brass (have way better resolution, kinda scary too) and need to try some new piano's I found.  Basically going to keep improving the pat set to make it as small as possible without losing quality (improve quality that is); some instruments are really huge and only sound okay (organs and bass guitars come to mind).  Don't like that most of the pat-set uses mostly two to three soundfonts either (they're also popular).

You are also right that the midi's themselves could use improvement but I still need to make sure the pat-set isn't at fault; it seems Eidos (or whoever's responsible for FFVII PC) expected people to use a soundfont specifically built for FFVII, but then again maybe not.  Just found out lb2.mid needs a custom per2 instead of the RidePing currently used but it conflicts with other songs so it doesn't make sense. lb2.mid uses a custom per2 (which is in FFVII's lb2.sf2 I think) in the default bank0, but if I change the RidePing to the custom per2 for lb2.mid then the chocobo and all other midi's will sound screwed up!  Need to double check and see if lb2.mid and the chocobo song both really use the default bank 0 (custom instruments shouldn't go in bank 0).  lb2.mid also has a bad sounding timpani with awe midi but not the xg midi; don't want to drag this post any longer with problems I keep finding :).  Will fix whatever's busted when I have time (both the midi's and the patset).

Would be great if I could get a link to a group of midi's specially made for testing volume on each and every instrument, so I can get them exactly right (maybe that'll tell me if FFVII needs unique cfgs for its own midi's).  Or perhaps a free program.

You really are too kind to me in your posts Template.  Thank you so much kind sir! Glad you like the patset.

Regards

14
That's great you got it to work! Looks right; but you don't need
Code: [Select]
bank 0
drumset 0
in C:\timidity\huge_pats\timidity.cfg.

Assuming patset works on your end because you added
Code: [Select]
source C:\timidity\huge_pats\timidity.cfg line to C:\timidity\musix\timidity.cfg (which looks to be the main timidity.cfg like you say judging from your first screenshot (comment (add "#" without quotes) to any other source lines if they exist)).  That's all you need.  Avoid setwindrv.exe. It makes things more difficult. 

So this "main" timidity.cfg points to the timidity.cfg in the huge-pats folder, as well as to the directories containing the pats themselves
That's correct.  You only need to add
Code: [Select]
source locationofthepatsettimidity.cfg and comment any other source lines in the main C:\timidity\timidity.cfg.

Be sure twsyng preferences has "Default Midi Type" to "XG" for the Yamaha XG option; and make sure it's set to "GM" if you play with the awe32 soundfont option (FFVII config test doesn't play the awe soundfont but it works in game) or "General Midi".

Timidity++ could use an updated GUI IMO.  Doesn't have to be so hard and complicated.

Regards

15
Added new demo's in FLAC quality so anyone interested can observe the patset better; FZero GX recording gives a good demo of the guitars and bass.  If you watch how high the bitrate is during playback, you can observe how difficult it was for FLAC to compress using best compression; they could've been 48000khz too but if you decide to use the patset, you definately can go that high (game sounds will get resampled to 48000khz from lower sampling rates if your OS is set there, but game sounds might not matter as much to some folks, or not be noticeable; it's always best to avoid resampling unless you have a really high quality global resampler which is why I usually use 44100khz for midi and older games).   

Also removed the ogg demo's of One Winged Angel (lb2.ogg and lb2_awe.ogg) since I used XG midi mode for the awe midi; thought Timidity++ automatically falls back to general midi but it doesn't so the taiko drum was wrong (doh)! The ogg quality used didn't do good to demonstrate instrument quality either.  Beware that you have to explicitly tell timidity++ to use GM or XG since it won't decide automatically; this pat set is not GS compatible btw.

Should be new games with midi (check out the Nocturne FLAC demo above) and it saves a lot of space for other data.  What's up with that?

16
Releases / Re: [REL] Anxious Heart (for FF7)
« on: 2013-07-19 11:53:06 »
Any chance you'll release this in FLAC?  Don't mean to be pushy and think your work is great!

Kind regards

17
Releases / Re: [REL] Anxious Heart (for FF7)
« on: 2013-07-19 03:55:08 »
Okay didn't know there was a remastered version.  Also found some problems with this soundtrack and don't know if the original source or the ogg quality is to blame. 

Which one sounds closer to the source how the authors intended?  This, or http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8160.0.  I'd rather buy it unless there's a FLAC release.

18
You don't need a new soundcard for this.  Timidity++ does everything in software.  Only reason you'd need a new one is if your current one has really bad sound quality output.  Timidity++ doesn't use any hardware wavetable features in any soundcards whether it's a yamaha XG MU-100, roland sound canvas, audigy 2, etc; it does it's own rendering using your main CPU.  Timidity emulates hardware midi.  Unless your onboard sound really does have pitiful sound quality you don't need a new one...  At least make sure the pat set works properly before buying a new sound card for timidity and this pat set :oops:.

Made a mistake and put to use
Code: [Select]
#extension opt -EFns=3 in the readme.  This actually causes clipping and distortion which could very well be what you or others experience (similar to what you describe but doesn't make sense either since you say general midi works so maybe it's something else).  Delete
Code: [Select]
#extension opt -EFns=3 if using it or use 0
Code: [Select]
#extension opt -EFns=0
Recommend to use MidiYoke with twsyng instead.  Timidity via setwindrv can be painful and it crashed FFVII on my end (using Windows 7 but I could've had the wrong options).  Logarithmic volume control is greyed out when using midiyoke with timidity++'s twsyng which also allows independent volume levels in Windows vista-7 (having volume too loud for timidity's midi can cause the drums to sound distorted and/or too quiet).

Make sure timidity midi device type is configured to XG for FFVII XG playback (it should automatically fall back to general midi when you use general midi or awe midi).  Change timidity midi device type to GM, for awe soundfont or general midi option.

You want to set the right timidity options in the default timidity.cfg your using (your using the one in the pat set as default. Other setups should use another (a main) timidity.cfg as default with all options in there and point to the pat set's timidity.cfg from there; this way you don't have to copy timidity settings to each and every timidity.cfg  :)).

Gauss interpolation with max quality is set with the following:
Code: [Select]
#extension opt -EFresamp=g
#extension opt -a -N 34+1

twsyng has a gui and makes the settings much easier to handle and using it with midiyoke didn't cause crash issues like setwindrv did on my end (looks like you're using that; I could've had the wrong options).  The way you're doing it requires the options be set in the default timidity.cfg through a text editor, and this can be a huge pain :evil: when tracking timidity conflicts-problems since there's no verbosity console.  Yamaha XG option should be working btw.

Test the custom XG midi file I uploaded through timw32g.  If it plays fine and you hear vocals (around 1:10 and 3:10) then you know the pat set is being used properly by timidity and you can apply the same options from there to twsyng (or the painful way through command line).  Then you can use the yamaha xg option in FFVII config menu.

Try twsyng with midi yoke since the way your doing it now is more difficult; setwindrv crashed FFVII for me everytime (might be working on your end but it's still pain not knowing if timidity encounters an error).

Here's the settings you should use:





If you still hear the drums but their faint (or distorted) try turning down timidity's volume (amp should be 50 but lower values may be better on your setup).  Make sure noise shaping is set to 0 (anything higher than 3).  Made a mistake and recommended the tube amplifier like noise shaping which is wrong!  You need 0 or higher than 3 for noise shaping (tube amplifier like can be too loud and cause clipping-distortion which can be similar to what you're experiencing; if general midi works fine however then it doesn't seem like the noise shaping at fault).

Also, use the correct location for the "dir" lines in the pat set's timidity.cfg so timidity can find the drumsets and banks; it looks like you're already doing that. 

What OS are you using?

I also agree and think midi doesn't suck.  It saves lots of hard drive space and you can swap instrument sets to have totally different masters and quality to music.  Also think using the native game midi is better than black hacks (black hacks are great btw  :evil:) to use pre-recorded music files; it's amazing what they pulled off with the awe32 considering it only had 512kb of ram (then again it's amazing what they did with the playstation considering it had less ram for music I imagine).  Plus we still have the yamaha XG midi to render the music like the playstation (it seems better IMO but it's also better being able to use different instrument sets; if we find high quality sources of the samples used in the playstation, we could make a patset-soundfont out of them.  We can make a sega genesis patset-soundfont, SNES FFIV, :o) and you can master your own soundtrack with different soundfont-patset combinations.  Actually encountered errors in the OST that are gone with the yamaha XG midi; don't know if it's ogg's fault but oh well.

19
Releases / Re: [REL] Anxious Heart (for FF7)
« on: 2013-07-18 10:06:28 »
Wow this is great!  The original masters... Can't get any better than this.  The quality is way better than the minipsf's.  Many props! 

All that's left is finding the original sources for the FMV's.  Using the fmv's you released already and it sure is a treat!

Kind regards

20
Pat set released and reduced to 150mb!  Still want it better (and smaller) but released it this way in case I lose track or it gets deleted somewhere.

21
Anyone have success getting this to work on Final Fantasy VII with Virtual Box and Windows XP guest?  Tried myself using a Linux Host and Windows XP guest but I get an error after screen goes black; also noticed direct x 7 tests fail in dxdiag but directx 8-9 succeed.

Do lots of projects and college work on my Linux install and would be nice to not have to reboot sometimes to play Final Fantasy VII; do like Windows (wonderful break after burning myself out on Linux) but sometimes I wish I didn't have to reboot.

22
You don't need a new sound card to listen to xg formatted music.  Can use timidity++ instead with a very high quality pat set (or soundfont) and have the equivalent of a $3000+ midi synthesizer; it's purely software.  Not only that, you don't have to worry about cables, ground loops and all that nonsense.   You do have to set the right options in Timidity++, but once you set it you forget it; oh and you need a computer with Linux, Windows or Intel Mac OS :P.  Timidity++ really shows the beauty of software.  Thanks to Masanao Izumo and anyone else who helped with Timidity++.

XG compatible hardware consists of a midi module or wavetable card that can read and process XG formatted midi data.

Your onboard sound might be more than adequate (all you need is timidity++ software).  You could check and see if it can do bit-perfect playback (most onboard realtek alc chipsets do bit-perfect playback and have very good snr); this means it doesn't resample everything to a specific rate.  Live! and Audigy sound cards did this and it causes ugly aliasing and artifacts when sounds aren't evenly multiplied (44100 or 22050 upsampled to 48000 gets ugly and you have to use a powerful software resampler to avoid the ugliness; lots of people used foobar 2000 to resample 44100khz music to 48000khz when using live!-audigy cards for instance).  This is yet another reason why Timidity++ is better than hardware; it resamples using gauss and sinc interpolation which does a fantastic job of making sure every instrument sounds as best as it can no matter what sample rate you use; only downside is it takes a chunk out of your cpu but it's definately higher quality (sure as heck don't trust an audigy2 to render soundfonts anymore).

Even if your soundcard can't do bit-perfect playback there are still plenty of software options to do the resampling required (some people might not even notice either).  This isn't a big deal either to people who are used to gaming with a real Awe32, Live! or Audigy series sound cards  :mrgreen:  Personally prefer bit perfect playback over any features. It's also nice to have at least 98db snr or higher.

23
This is for Windows users (and Linux) but if FFVII works under Linux using Wine or similar with timidity++, then it it'll work there too; the main program the pat set is targeting is timidity++ with support for Final Fantasy VII with some guidance for Linux users.  Will probably work on Intel Mac OS systems; then again if your toaster runs timidity++ it'll probably work on that as well  ;D.

I'm at the end of Final Fantasy VII trying to get a Gold chocobo on Windows 7 and had no issues what so ever.  Think the pat set is near good enough. 

It should be noted I didn't record any of the instruments and they were all grabbed from various soundfonts released by fine folks on the web for free.  All credit goes to the authors.  Will try to include the authors of the soundfonts used as best I can.

Updated main post with links as well but still getting pat set ready.

24
Huge pat set version 0.2.8 (you need 7zip)
http://speedy.sh/Np6wr/huge-pats-0.2.8.7z

xg.lgp with vocals added
(download xg-vocals-psdrums.lgp if you want "One Winged Angel" like the playstation.  It's six seconds of drums towards end)
http://speedy.sh/M6j2A/xg-vocals.lgp
http://speedy.sh/HmbeK/xg-vocals-psdrums.lgp

These are samples recorded from the pat-set with timidity++ running real-time so you get a taste of it :).  Used the following timidity settings
Code: [Select]
--no-realtime-load -EM43 -EFdelay=0 -Ew -Ep -Ev -Es -Ee -Et -Eo -Ez -A70,100 -EFvlpf=m -EFchorus=n -EFreverb=n -EFns=0 -EFresamp=g -a -N 34+1 -s 48000 -OF --flac-complevel=bestDon't think midi can sound any better unless you get better samples or a new extension to the format.
http://speedy.sh/M6jFA/One-Winged-Angel-PSX-drums.flac (Virtually the same except a very short segment (like 6 seconds) towards end has drums)
http://speedy.sh/HmbpK/canyon.flac  This is a good track to demonstrate atmosphere achieved with the XG soundtrack IMO.  Don't remember the PSX sounding this detailed and full either (same goes for all other XG midi tracks).
http://speedy.sh/UfGZV/One-Winged-Angel.flac (Original XG track (with the vocals added of course :) )

Consider these temporary links until better host is found.

HOW TO:
[/color]
Install timidity++ and use the following options
Code: [Select]
--no-realtime-load -EM43 -EFdelay=0 -Ew -Ep -Ev -Es -Ee -Et -Eo -Ez -A70,100 -EFvlpf=m -EFchorus=n -EFreverb=n -EFns=0 -EFresamp=g -a -N 34+1 -s 48000  You might need 44100khz if you're playing bit-perfect output from the SFX otherwise 48000 sounds better for the midi.  You might need to change volume (-A70,100) to 100% (-A100,100), or lower to 50% (-A50,100); it really depends on your setup and is up to you.  If you need guidance on setting these options through GUI, there's some explanation further down this thread.  Also, for DOSBOX and other general midi, change -EM43 to -EM7e; you can change to -EM41 instead for GS midi also (yes this does have GS midi support).

ISSUES:

Make sure to use XG midi in timidity++ with zero noise shaping (prevents clipping).  These won't sound correct with any other midi type for FFVII even if you use the right Timidity++ options.  Reason pat-set was made with FFVII XG soundtrack in mind, is it sounds a lot better than general midi (also why it sounds as good as the PSX if not better).  Also, the awe and general midi soundtracks were meant to be used with custom soundfonts included with FFVII at time of release; almost all soundfonts generally don't sound correct with FFVII in that regard (you must use the custom soundfonts included with the game, or one made specifically for FFVII).  The pat-set however, is compatible with DOSBOX, ZDOOM, and other midi software (and it sounds great), but you must choose general midi in timidity++ for respective playback (if you leave XG midi enabled, music and/or sound effects will be wrong for general midi playback, and likewise for XG midi.  Timidity++ doesn't automagically select proper midi settings for you unfortunately).


 
There doesn't seem to be serious issues but some instruments might need tweaking (sinra.mid does have a problem sounding right (if you fast forward the track and resume normal speed in real-time it ends up sounding better), but it's pretty much nit-picking and is really up to whoever wants to master the tracks).  Dog barks, laughing and other sounds could use higher resolution IMO.

Issue either with Timidity limitation or XG mappings in xgmap.cfg.  Midi tracks that call a "hand cymbal" on program 49, instrument 51, drumset 0, will get a "ride ping".  At first this seems right since a "ride ping" is supposed to be on instrument 51 bank 0, but on real XG hardware a "closed hand cymbal" is triggered instead if program 49 is used (it's the same instrument 51 and same bank 0, but a different program).  This issue probably occurs with other instruments in the same manner.  Don't think I can resolve this as I'll probably have to go through XG documents and make a more appropriate xgmap.cfg file, and/or edit timidity source code (I'd need a cross-compiler to build it for Windows from Linux too).  This problem is worked around with the patched lgp sets from above (XG midi needs to patched for vocals so why not).

After contacting Eric Welsh (author of the xgmap.cfg and many other things to do with TiMidity), he recommend I use separate "closed hand cymbal" and "ride ping" wave files, and combine them into a single pat.  Going to try this when I have time and see what happens, but first I have to figure out how to make a pat (I do have some dos utilities that might work).  Personally think timidity++ is limited and it just won't fix the XG mapping limitation (as mentioned above).

NOTE:
Timidity++ (twsyng) has been reported to not function with the recent re-release PC version of FFVII and AAli's driver.  Since I only have the original release I'm unable to help in that regard.  Hopefully AAli can work on his driver for Timidity++ support (twsyng).

Regards

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