Author Topic: [FF7PC-98] 190mb XG pat set for timidity++! xg.lgp w/vocals added (2014-03-03)  (Read 39400 times)

vexatious

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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?   ???)
« Last Edit: 2013-07-29 14:12:08 by vexatious »

Template

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Thanks for all your hard work. Now that it's gone I miss your colorful first post...

I was having trouble getting it to work but I realized I needed to click "start synthesizer" from the task bar button thingy Kaldarasha pointed at last page...
« Last Edit: 2013-07-29 14:25:24 by Template »

vexatious

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Re: patset taken down :)
« Reply #27 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
« Last Edit: 2013-07-29 10:32:26 by vexatious »

vexatious

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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).
« Last Edit: 2013-07-29 14:13:31 by vexatious »

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Re: 175mb XG/GM/ (unsupported GS) pat set for timidity++!
« Reply #29 on: 2013-07-30 19:27:49 »
OK! So, about the update. I did a new installation of timidity because I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with mine. Works again, now and I'm pretty positive it's set up correctly, same as last time. Things are definitely very different with the updated patset. Much more "studio" and perfected in GM+AWE mode for me. I miss my Gothic choir in the XG/XG battle theme, it disappeared or got quiet or changed! I dunno, maybe I did something weird and forgot about it, but XG just isn't sounding right on my system, I'm wondering if my hardware is doing something funny or if I should try the original lgp instead of the splash cymbal one. Not like it's not working, it is, but some of the instruments are super quiet compared to others now. The midi that plays as the game opens has a super loud accented long note off what sounds like an electric piano or bass at one point. It was there for me before but now it's louder in the mix even. I wish I knew the names of the midis off the top of my head but I haven't even bothered to unpack the lgp files yet to look at them all. The entire sound side of FF7 I've pretty much avoided til recently. I used ff7music and dealt with it.

What sounds really good to me now is the GM(in timidity) + Awe(in ff7config). I never tried the GM+AWE because I hadn't read your notes carefully. Once I went from XG/AWE(which is wrong) to GM/AWE it came to life. It sounds original, but sweet. Is it possible you were working on that one a good deal and maybe it somehow threw the XG off some for me? The other thing is... The update runs way way way smoother. Again, new installation but now the music loads instant. Idk what happened there, my previous installation had a big delay (well half a second or a second). I followed your readme more closely this time, along with the screenshots in your posts, and now I get instant response from the midi on pretty much any setting. So yeah, I'm really really pleased. I want to start trying to learn how to customize the set if I run out of busy work type-mods to do. But honestly, the GM/AWE is really good so far, it's just I haven't got the time or patience to even play through the game lately much less to listen critically to the soundtrack. I suspect as I move past that ONE song "the battle theme" and the next 1 or 2 after it, the XG/XG sounds will impress me more. XG has more potential I would think.

EQ2Alyza

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Re: 175mb XG/GM/ (unsupported GS) pat set for timidity++!
« Reply #30 on: 2013-07-31 00:21:12 »
Do you need download mirrors for huge_pat_set.zip and huge_pat_set_fix.zip?

Template

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Re: 175mb XG/GM/ (unsupported GS) pat set for timidity++!
« Reply #31 on: 2013-07-31 00:59:37 »
Do you need download mirrors for huge_pat_set.zip and huge_pat_set_fix.zip?
I think the one on the front page includes the fix. Why, do you still have the Gothic choir!? I miss it! lol
I've verified the download on the front page does include the fix. Like I said, it's definitely an improvement, particularly in the AWE area so far, but my testing time is very limited.

MIDI is awesome tho, people will say, "oh, but you should be using .ogg". But concert and studio musicians use MIDI to make the recordings we turn into those .oggs. So it's not going anywhere on my system. I mean, you can get right down and customize the instruments for your own soundtrack this way, tell them louder or softer. ff7music allows you to choose songs, but not instruments...

One question for the OP whenever she has a moment:
Quote from: the readme
You can use plw-vista-midi-mapper_0_93 or newer (search on google)
to set your default midi device in Windows Vista and 7 to the proper
midi yoke port.  This helps problems such as SDL_Mixer based software
using Windows Vista and 7's default general midi synthesizer.
I did download and put this Control panel file in my System32 and Syswow64 or w/e folders. Can't find an actual control panel page for it though, I checked the registry entries it is supposed to affect and it just seems like I only have the Default MIDI device and MS Midi device available, and it has set both 32 and 64 bit keys to the default. But then Timidity works fine so what am I doing in the troubleshooting section of your readme anyway, right? This is probably something I just don't need because I don't have any external software or hardware midi inputs? I am gathering some soundcards or software suites might have needed this. Well it's good to try to answer your own question while writing it.
« Last Edit: 2013-08-01 18:41:02 by Template »

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Re: 175mb XG/GM/ (unsupported GS) pat set for timidity++!
« Reply #32 on: 2013-08-01 11:42:15 »
Wanted to post a link for newer version of Timidity I found... kept having issues with the one I was using (from the big list) and wondered why I was having to manually enter codes for Gauss extensions. So! These are really the only two things you need to make this work (at least on Win7, my only test machine).

TiMidity-CVS060306_setup_en (Just install the default setup, don't add the Windows/NT driver it doesn't work, and the other two things are broken downloads)

Midi Yoke NT 1.75

After the inevitable struggle with the cfg files, i got the newer version working and it fixed the problems I was having with weird sound. Loudness/quietness issues disappeared, strange instruments sound normal now. I got my delay back on XG/XG, too which makes sense, it sounds like it's doing a lot of work, there's tons of stereo and delay effects and the added sound effects I was really not expecting but like... bubbles in the reactor for example. Very very very pro. No joke on the free $3,000 software suite.

The main timidity.cfg on a default install would be at C:\timidity\freepats\timidity.cfg and
would look like this:
Code: [Select]
dir "C:\timidity\huge_pats"

source C:\timidity\huge_pats\timidity.cfg
And you need to edit the timidity.cfg file in the huge_pats folder as well, but Vex has commented this to make it easy for you. As far as I can tell, the command line gauss extensions do not work in this version, and there is no control for it, so not sure where that went, but it sounds incredible now anyway. The only other thing I do not understand is why the MIDIs are restarting from beginning after every battle.

To be honest Vex, you should have added donation info. Maybe a lot of people will overlook this thread or just will be afraid of it. But this is better than ff7music if you aren't looking for dance music to replace the soundtrack. I'm hesitant to say how much better, because I don't want to start any kind of carrot-measure contest or anything. It's just awesome. But let me say this. You need a good CPU. I'm running a Phenom II 960t quad core @ 3.5Ghz which isn't exactly handling it as fast as I would like. Game performance is totally unaffected but there is a delay of sound output only in between changes in MIDI files (they are encoded into an lgp file) as the instruments are loaded. Mine's like... a fraction of a second really but it gets noticeable when you win a fight. You want it to be like seemless (which it is with general Midi). This is probably why Vex wanted to get the patset size down. I don't care, I want a better computer anyway... I am going to do a little testing with the process priority and synthesizer priority but I don't think that will help. Someone really into this could continue testing and/or making smaller size samples for use with ff7, but I do not have the mind for that.
« Last Edit: 2013-08-02 02:56:35 by Template »

vexatious

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Re: 175mb XG/GM/ (unsupported GS) pat set for timidity++!
« Reply #33 on: 2013-08-03 02:50:13 »
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.

Template

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Re: 175mb XG/GM/ (unsupported GS) pat set for timidity++!
« Reply #34 on: 2013-08-03 04:58:34 »
I use Google Drive. It's free to 10Gigabytes and pretty fast. I am not positive but I don't think there is a bandwidth limit (like per day) at all. Kinda hard to imagine the Feds arresting the CEO and all your data going poof, too. I know how frustrating it is uploading big files.

Anyway, PM me a paypal email or something and I have a donation with your name on it. Considering your patset is designed to work for a lot of games you could potentially draw more enthusiast attention from a wider source by distributing your set in lots of little gamer communities and make a little extra money for books and synth equipment; I would throw that paypal email on your very good readme file you wrote and you might have a little money come in now and then, you never know. I only suggest this because of the complexity of what you've put together, the relative obscurity of the tools with which you did it, and the fact you said you were in school.

PS I finally got my Gothic Choir back, the fix you told me to put in + using the original sound effects fixed my problems... with bootleg on, or those sound effects, something I was doing was messing with all your pads. That choir is totally awesome even if it's not much like the original. It should have been.
« Last Edit: 2013-08-08 11:50:22 by Template »

vexatious

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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
« Last Edit: 2013-09-26 01:56:40 by vexatious »

Landarma

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If you want to download a file from speedy.sh without having premium account, you have to install their download manager(you don't need to install additional craps along with, though).  It's one-time installation and not so slow, but I hate it...(I'm uninstalling it after downloading files)

**By the way, does anyone test it on TiMidity++ bw Edition?  I haven't installed the game for several years, so I cannot test it right now.
« Last Edit: 2013-09-27 07:24:42 by Landarma »

Jaki

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« Last Edit: 2014-06-19 13:34:56 by Jaki »

vexatious

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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. 
« Last Edit: 2014-02-21 10:07:58 by vexatious »

vexatious

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Re: 175mb XG pat set for timidity++! xg.lgp with vocals added!
« Reply #39 on: 2014-03-03 11:26:38 »
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.
« Last Edit: 2014-03-03 12:17:54 by vexatious »

Salk

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I am interested in anything MIDI and FF7 related so this seemed interesting to me.

The problem is, I don't understand much what this is. The OT speaks of files to download but it's very obscure. Plus the files are no longer available for download.

Can anyone shed some light?

Thanks!