Author Topic: Ack! Best song ever done in the style of The Extreme (FF8)! (Read 10029 times)

Goku7 · « **on:** 2003-05-12 16:23:01 »

Linkage to the thread on the FFOnline Forums here:

http://forums.ffonline.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19750

<edit>
For those of you having problems with the FFOnline forums and can't get to the thread, here's the direct link to the file:

"Throwing a Gauntlet at the Feet of Death" <---(Title as shown in that thread)

</edit>

Anyway, just like they way The Extreme is, this is rather slow for the first minute, in the same way Uematsu designed The Extreme, so don't be fooled.

And if it sounds this good in MIDI format....I can only imagine how good it would sound if he was to get his hands on using some soundfonts for this....

Freakin' amazing, if you want my opinion....

Galadyn · « **Reply #1 on:** 2003-05-12 16:59:44 »

Well crap... for some reason, my address is banned on a site I've never been to before. I really liked that song the first time around though, any way you could send me this one?

Jedimark · « **Reply #2 on:** 2003-05-12 18:27:08 »

I'm not registering....

Goku7 · « **Reply #3 on:** 2003-05-13 00:34:56 »

Quote from: Jedimark

I'm not registering....

Whoa, whoa, whoa.....they switched over to a mandatory register-to-view setup?!

My apologies, I had not known they did that. Anyway, for some reason the entire forums over there are down....but as soon as I get thru, I'll edit my first post and add some direct linking to the song, so "stay tuned", I guess.

Galadyn · « **Reply #4 on:** 2003-05-13 03:00:29 »

I don't mind registering, but I mind that my address is banned from a site I've never even seen before.

Goku7 · « **Reply #5 on:** 2003-05-13 03:36:59 »

Hmmm.....well, the entire site still seems down....so no link yet...

Quote from: Galadyn

I don't mind registering, but I mind that my address is banned from a site I've never even seen before.

Galadyn, I think you got hit indirectly by an IP range ban, meaning if people just "happen" to get an IP addy that falls within the range being banned, then I suppose they are kinda...erm, stuck.

On the other hand, one of those may have been necessary, for all we know, they could've been banning someone with a Dynamic IP address and thus couldn't be stopped unless they banned an entire region of IP address values.

Jedimark · « **Reply #6 on:** 2003-05-13 19:48:24 »

Hmm... my address also seems to be banned.

Kendrilian · « **Reply #7 on:** 2003-05-13 19:54:50 »

They have banned yahoo, and hotmail, but not aohell. When I tried aohell, though, it said that the picture didn't match up to the letters I typed in. I tried over a dozen combinations, it was no use...

Kendrilian

Goku7 · « **Reply #8 on:** 2003-05-13 21:13:44 »

Ok, the site appears to be back online, I have found the topic and yanked from the thread the direct link that the file's author (his account name on FFOnline appears to be "Valvados") posted.

Head back to the first post, and you'll now find the direct link on there.

BTW, the file is not being hosted by the FFOnline forums, so that should mean you shouldn't encounter any problems accessing it....

Jedimark · « **Reply #9 on:** 2003-05-13 23:40:22 »

They have banned ntlworld also.

Elitist1 · « **Reply #10 on:** 2003-05-14 13:31:14 »

i want it, hook me up.

but will any video game track ever match the excellence that is the original symphony " One Winged Angel " ? *

* final form sephiroth's music from ff 7 for those not in the know

Galadyn · « **Reply #11 on:** 2003-05-15 00:51:13 »

I was most pissed at the PC version of FF7 which plays a MIDI of one-winged angel during that fight... no chanting of SEPHIROTH! at all, just a freaking midi.

Goku7 · « **Reply #12 on:** 2003-05-15 01:10:43 »

Quote from: Galadyn

I was most pissed at the PC version of FF7 which plays a MIDI of one-winged angel during that fight... no chanting of SEPHIROTH! at all, just a freaking midi.

Well, it does and it doesn't. The PSX actually does the same thing, the voices you hear are sampled and played back as an "instrument", which explains why you can't find it as XA audio on the disc.

Have you ever looked inside the lb2.sf2 (default folder is "C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\midi\sf2\") file? If you look at instrument samples for the drums, you'll find that interspersed in it are the voice samples.

And yes, as other people who are using an SBLive!/Audigy/SBAWE with at least 4MB SF-RAM will tell you, the PC version does indeed use them in the MIDI file.

Rubicant · « **Reply #13 on:** 2003-05-15 08:59:31 »

Quote from: Goku7

And yes, as other people who are using an SBLive!/Audigy/SBAWE with at least 4MB SF-RAM will tell you, the PC version does indeed use them in the MIDI file.

And that is absolutely true.

However, I didn't like that song all that much. I guess it was an interesting adaptation from the original, but I find the original one to be more sinister.

Galadyn · « **Reply #14 on:** 2003-05-15 16:40:03 »

I have a Fortissimo 7.1 and I didn't hear the voices.

Goku7 · « **Reply #15 on:** 2003-05-15 21:40:28 »

Quote from: Galadyn

I have a Fortissimo 7.1 and I didn't hear the voices.

That is completely normal, since it is NOT a SoundBlaster card. I have the first generation "Maxi Sound Fortissimo" (its the 4.1 speaker version that has an Optical Digital output plus normal analog output jacks, and an XG hardware synth for MIDI, if you're familiar with the Fortissimo line of sound cards), and it doesn't do the voices either, because both yours and my cards are not capable of using the SF2 format in hardware.

DLS format is a different story (because anyone who has DX6.1 or higher installed has support for it), but FF7 is incapable of using it, because its a DX5 game.

Galadyn · « **Reply #16 on:** 2003-05-15 21:59:41 »

But actually now that I think about it, I had an SB Live! 5.1 when I played FF7 on PC... no voices.

Galadyn · « **Reply #17 on:** 2003-05-15 22:01:42 »

But actually now that I think about it, I had an SB Live! 5.1 when I played FF7 on PC... no voices.

Goku7 · « **Reply #18 on:** 2003-05-15 22:40:12 »

At the time, did you have to load the soundfont manually to use it with FF7?

If that's the case, then that's your explaination for the lack of voices.

You see, under ideal driver conditions (which might be now) when you launch FF7, it interfaces with the SoundFont Manager system (without this, you can't load soundfonts AT ALL, so it would have definitely been installed), to auto-load the correct size soundfont for FF7. This size-checking step only exists because back then, a majority of Sound Blaster cards were of the AWE model, which used onboard "SF-RAM" (a term I made up, naturally, it means "SoundFont RAM") to store Soundfonts instead of using your System RAM, and at max you might have 4 or 8MB of the stuff availible to your card, which is why you see that they have FF7's Soundfont in 512k, 2MB, and 4MB sizes....

...ANYWAY, in addition to the different-sized soundfonts, there was another font that is ONLY auto-loaded by the game into SF-RAM when it is playing the MIDI version of One Winged Angel, and then removed from SF-RAM after the fight is over.

Now, the problem that comes up here, is that since the SBLive! family of cards had a slightly different way of loading up soundfonts, tended to result in FF7 not able to correctly interface with the SF Manager and thus couldn't load the soundfonts by itself. This may also be the reason why the config program tends to give you a "Failed!" result when you try to test the soundfont loading.

Now, I'm doing all this off the top of my head, I think I have most of the history concerned with this bug correct, but I'm not 100% confident this is how it is exactly.....Rubicant, you have a Live!/Audigy, right? Mind telling me if any of this is wrong?

Aaron · « **Reply #19 on:** 2003-05-15 23:00:23 »

I have a Live!. I just went through the process.

You need to have Creative AudioHQ (comes with drivers on SBLive! CD, or from Creative's site, but not with the drivers that come with Windows XP). Run it up, run up the Soundfont applet in it, and load the FF7 soundfonts from the [ff7folder]\data\midi\sf2 folder [ff7.sf2 and lb2.sf2]. Then, in the FF7 Config program, tell it to use your SBLive! MIDI device and Soundfont MIDI (don't hit the "test" button - it'll fail). Now FF7 should use the soundfonts.

Elitist1 · « **Reply #20 on:** 2003-05-15 23:06:30 »

i want to buy a new sound card.

what card will be the easiest to hear the sephiroth chants ?

what sound card has the best quality ?

Contra · « **Reply #21 on:** 2003-05-15 23:28:45 »

SoundFonts work fine with any recent Sound Blaster. The best sound quallity is the Audigy 2.

Aaron · « **Reply #22 on:** 2003-05-15 23:31:52 »

I'd highly recommend a SoundBlaster Live!. You should be able to find one for $30-ish, and it has excellent sound quality. SoundBlaster Audigy and Audigy 2 are also excellent cards, but kind of expensive.

Elitist1 · « **Reply #23 on:** 2003-05-16 12:36:48 »

what's the average price for an audigy or audigy 2 ?

Rubicant · « **Reply #24 on:** 2003-05-16 15:10:09 »

Don't waste your money on a new sound card just for one game, unless the current one you have sucks bad. You might as well use psf's if you are crying and whining over hearing the voices in the last boss theme.