Duke Nukem 3D Music and Sound Project

[DavoX]

Yes the most difficult program that ever existed in the face of the earth, the notepad

[Lt.Havoc]

OMG!! Notepad! Its impossible to use!

I get it, will take a look in the file. Still, I would like to have a support for tracker formats as well, so I could use all my .mod, .xm and .it files in DN3D. I´m not a coder, so I cant tell if its possible at all.

[kaotic_oz]

actually i think the size limit is gone becouse in eduk32 ver 1.3.0 ive got a 132000 byte file and it plays just fine.

[Lt.Havoc]

Where do I have to put the midi files? I changed them in the user con and all, but the dont work. Do I need to crate a new floder or something?

[DavoX]

Lt.Havoc said:
Where do I have to put the midi files? I changed them in the user con and all, but the dont work. Do I need to crate a new floder or something?

Place the midis in the same directory as duke3d and the edited user.con, also remember the size limit.

[GodBlitZor]

The file name cant go past 8 letters, either.

[Denz]

I think it needs some Dukeish music. The music made now are good, but it don't feel dukeish in my little opinion.

[Pete B]

Localhosed said:
Thanks very much for re-visiting these songs, PeteB. I've been watching the thread for a while and am still eager to get the whole package of songs you're re-working.

Thanks for all your comments dude, I appreciate it. Soem of the songs do have guitar in them, but its just whatever I find appropriate. The original version of Stalker I did had a distorted guitar in it but was later removed and replaced with that funky distorted synth.

Thanks to everyone else as well who've been keeping this thread alive.

[JMB]

I don't mean to nag you, but any estimates on when you'll release the pack? Or at least a couple tracks off it to hold us over? Are you still just waiting for JFDuke to support MP3/OGG files?

[Pete B]

Its a mix of things really. Mainly because I dont want these going out on the net untill i'm absolutely sure im happy.

There is no such thing as v2.0 in the music industry

[Lt.Havoc]

Well, currently I´m using midi tunes, but I really get tired of them. What is planned for EDuke or Jonof or the HRP music wise? Wehn will they support MP3, OGG and other formats? It would be cool, if it where possible to add your mp3s you have to the game, like in GTA3 and so on. I mean, everyone has cool mp3s or tracker formats he would like to use, and midis are really outdated, thats why I´m asking.

[Pete B]

Ok, firstly let me tell you that midi is NOT outdated in anyway shape or form. It just so happens that back in the days of Duke3D, there was no way to compress sound files in a good way and 40 odd tracks of CD quality sound files (*.wav) wouldn't fit on a single CD nor a Hard Drive of the current time. MP3 compression was unknown and 'Midi Data Files' were the only format suitable for the job. If it wasn't for midi, almost every peice of music you hear today, on radio and cd, wouldn't exist, basically because Midi is a kind of programming language for sound, kind of like what C++ is for computers. All the biggest bands, groups, and solo artists you love use Midi in some way while recording there songs. But, because you are not blessed with a knowledge of midi, i will forgive you for making that comment.

Now then.... As I understand, JFDuke already has support for OGG but not quite MP3 yet. Or maybe it supports both, but I dont follow updates quite so well.

I do agree that there should be some kind of 'player' system so you can use your own MP3's like in GTA and UT etc. However, I have to slap myself for saying that because I want everyone to listen to my music, and nothing else!

[TerminX]

Pete B said:
Now then.... As I understand, JFDuke already has support for OGG but not quite MP3 yet. Or maybe it supports both, but I dont follow updates quite so well.

It supports neither, actually.

[Pete B]

Ok.... that gives me more time to be happy with what I made!

[Lt.Havoc]

Well, as long as there isnt a support for ogg or mp3 yet, I cant listen to the music I have, nor your new tunes Pete. Well, I loved midi too back in the day where midi was the non-plus-ultra, but today you have so many other music formarts that midi looks really old. The porblem is, that todays modern soundcards dont have a good midi support anymore.

I remeber that I had a 8mb midi instruments sound font for the Sound Blast Live. Now, I have the Soundblast Live Digital 5.1 and I only got a 4mb sound font. Thus, most of the midis I have dosnet sound that good. Wehn I look at my HD, I have tons of other music that I would like to use, wich is not-midi, but I cant while its not supporrted yet.

I think adding a player like UT or GTA has them would be a nice idea, so everyone could add his tunes to the game and play it, it would also sound better. I just have the few sampels of your work Pete, so I cant really tell how the music sound currently. The thing is, wehn you are done re-making the music from Duke3D and there is no support for the formats, then you have the finished tunes and you still have to wait to use it.

Its a bit silly, thats all. Its like you have the finished Windows for you home, but the bulding isnt even up yet.

Anyway, keep up the good work Pete. Would love to hear some of your tunes soon.

[Parkar]

How about using an external player to play your own songs for now? I am sure most of them have quick buttons so you can control the player from inside the game. At least winamp does.

[Lt.Havoc]

Yeah, but if I know my buggy system, that will slow down the game or cause a crash or whatever. I´m currently planning to get a new PC with a fresh Win version and all that.

I still have to try that, but I dont use Winamp that often, I mostly use the Creative Player or the Sonique player.

[gungriffon geona]

Parkar said:
How about using an external player to play your own songs for now? I am sure most of them have quick buttons so you can control the player from inside the game. At least winamp does.

I've been doing that since JFDuke came into existence. Evryone else can do it fine then too.

[Parkar]

Lt.Havoc said:
Yeah, but if I know my buggy system, that will slow down the game or cause a crash or whatever. I´m currently planning to get a new PC with a fresh Win version and all that.

I still have to try that, but I dont use Winamp that often, I mostly use the Creative Player or the Sonique player.

A music player hardly(depends on the player ofcourse) consume any resources at all so I think you will be fine.

[gt1750]

Playing JFDuke with HRP while running Media Player 9 on the background worked fine for me, no performance issues. I still haven't tried combination EDuke32 + HRP(with latest update pack) + sd_duke with the MP9. I guess that won't be going so well...

[tpz]

Pete B said:
Ok, firstly let me tell you that midi is NOT outdated in anyway shape or form. It just so happens that back in the days of Duke3D, there was no way to compress sound files in a good way and 40 odd tracks of CD quality sound files (*.wav) wouldn't fit on a single CD nor a Hard Drive of the current time. MP3 compression was unknown and 'Midi Data Files' were the only format suitable for the job. If it wasn't for midi, almost every peice of music you hear today, on radio and cd, wouldn't exist, basically because Midi is a kind of programming language for sound, kind of like what C++ is for computers. All the biggest bands, groups, and solo artists you love use Midi in some way while recording there songs. But, because you are not blessed with a knowledge of midi, i will forgive you for making that comment.

I understand what you are trying to say, but MIDI IS outdated. It is still widely used in studios and will never completely disappear but there are better alternatives.
Also, a lot of music nowadays is made in studios using midi, but if midi wasn't there, something else would have been used, like trackers or simply live recordings.

[Pete B]

There are no alternatives to midi. Trackers can't communicate with other devices without using midi, and alot of electronic music simply couldn't be made by playinng it live.

[Symok]

Pete B said:
There are no alternatives to midi. Trackers can't communicate with other devices without using midi, and alot of electronic music simply couldn't be made by playinng it live.

I think the point he's trying to make is that these days PC users don't generally download MIDI files. MIDI may still be used for creating the music, but as far as the end result, it is generally MP3 or some other similar format.

[tpz]

No a tracker can't communicate with a synth without midi, but you can sample the synth and use it in the tracker and apply effect from there. It's not like MIDI is essential to make electronic music.

[Pete B]

Not essential? Its the back bone to electronic music!

Plus, sampling would be too restrictive for certain performances. You can't edit the sounds or make adjustments after. And, you loose quality with sampling.

There is a Piano plugin called Ivory which uses sampled recordings of a Yamaha grand piano - it takes up 60GB of hard drive space. But even die hard pianists still complain its no where near as good as the real thing.

[JonoF]

MIDI's use extends far beyond the very narrow scope of what non-musicians consider it to be when they've only seen a .mid file on their harddisk and heard it played through the limited synthesisers on their PC's sound card. It is still the only universally supported interface for an electronic musical instrument to communicate with other electronic musical instruments, and it's also used for such things as driving lighting systems and controlling the motorised sliders on mixing desks in studios, etc. It's an old standard, but not at all outdated. There may be alternative methods for creating music but there's also more than one way to skin a cat.

Jonathon

[jimbob]

i use midi to write my music, simply because i hear immediatly what i`m doing. so i can react to that and ad lib things i never even thought of when writing it on paper

i still midi

[Pete B]

JonoF and Jimbob, you guys are spot on!

And, JonoF made a good point there - I suppose non musicians would just see *.mid file on their computer and immediately think it was limited, outdated and pretty much useless in comparision to what PC music formats we have today. I forgot to mention how useful Midi is for controlling stage lighting systems etc.

[DavoX]

Pete B said:
JonoF and Jimbob, you guys are spot on!

And, JonoF made a good point there - I suppose non musicians would just see *.mid file on their computer and immediately think it was limited, outdated and pretty much useless in comparision to what PC music formats we have today. I forgot to mention how useful Midi is for controlling stage lighting systems etc.

Also i think they never searched for any Extreme quality midi files, just amateur ones, i've found some awesome midi files that play just wonderful in my audigy 2

[Chazman]

Those who think MIDI is old and outdated need to have a look at their Internet connection. TCP/IP and Ethernet are very old standards, but are unmatched to this day. Just because it is old doesn't mean it is outdated.

[Pete B]

Yes, its possible to find some excellent midi tracks, usually have to pay for the higher quality ones. But even so, they will sound better because of your Audigy 2 which has a good Midi soundset. The same midi played on say an onboard cheapy soundcard will not sound anywhere near as good.

TCP/IP was another good example of older technology which is essential for how we do things today.

[tpz]

Pete B said:Not essential? Its the back bone to electronic music!

Yeah, I'm not denying that. I simpy disagree that we wouldn't have known music as it is today, without MIDI, because I think that is not true. It would have been made anyway, MIDI just made it easier and happend faster.

Pete B said:Plus, sampling would be too restrictive for certain performances. You can't edit the sounds or make adjustments after. And, you loose quality with sampling.

So what. I'm not saying using only a tracker or a sampler is a better solution. I'm saying it is an option. Offcourse you can't change the basic sounds anymore when you sample, but you can save the presets and re-record the take again, including your own changes.

There is a Piano plugin called Ivory which uses sampled recordings of a Yamaha grand piano - it takes up 60GB of hard drive space. But even die hard pianists still complain its no where near as good as the real thing.

Ofcourse nothing beats a real piano.

[tpz]

Sorry, but I've been using MIDI musically for ages, and I don't own crappy Creative soundcards.

[tpz]

Chazman said:Those who think MIDI is old and outdated need to have a look at their Internet connection. TCP/IP and Ethernet are very old standards, but are unmatched to this day. Just because it is old doesn't mean it is outdated.

Ok, outdated was obviously the wrong word. Old doesn't necessarily mean bad imo.

[Chazman]

tpz said:
Sorry, but I've been using MIDI musically for ages, and I don't own crappy Creative soundcards.

http://www.audiotrak.net/prodigy7.1LT.htm

Creative can't compare. I love this card. I love it even more since it's the best I can afford.

It lacks a MIDI interface and EAX (beyond 2.0), but it has some pretty nice audio features and good, unbloated drivers. The lack of MIDI and EAX is no problem since I have MIDI hardware and EAX really sucks. =P

[Pete B]

Creative aren't all that bad, its just the cards are aimed at a different market. Their sister company EMU make some of the best quality PC soundcards you can get, and Creative share the some of the same technology with EMU.

On ceratin cards the only difference between them is the brand name, drivers, and software, plus EMU usually supply professional audio connections with the cards which only affects recording.

[NightFright]

*** Message deleted by user ***

[Plagman]

I want you to shut up, and I mean now.
Ever felt rude or totally out of place ? Now is the time, dude.

[Phayzon]

Calm down, both of you (or as someone's siggy said, Why do ppl break it up intead of backing up who's right? NightFright FTW!)

[TerminX]

Originally Posted by Phayzon

Calm down, both of you (or as someone's siggy said, Why do ppl break it up intead of backing up who's right? NightFright FTW!)

Pardon? He isn't right, he's an ass. I think he should take Plagman's advice.